A Shore Never Reached?
by Liquid Chrome
Summary: 100 years after the disaster, some of the movie's characters are brought forward in time by a group of students who are trying to change the past and prevent the ship from sinking and open a mother's eyes to her daughter's despair by making them watch the movie "Titanic". Will they succeed in their mission to set things right?
1. Chapter 1

**This is my first ever fanfiction and I'm not sure if this is something you'd like to read but it has been on my mind for a very long time, so I wanted to share it with you guys.**

 **I know that not everything Cameron displayed in the movie is historically accurate, but for the sake of my story, it is.**

 **I'm always open for criticism so feel free to also post a comment if you don't like what I did here, I'm only asking you to tell why so I can improve my writing! :)**

* * *

"I'm still not entirely convinced that this is actually a good idea," Rosalie said skeptically and warily eyed the device in her friend's hand.

It was a heavy, ordinary-looking golden fob watch at first glance that seemed to have lost its use ages ago, but the four students sitting in the cozy living room of Rosalie's home knew better. Instead of two watch hands, this one had a total of five, each fulfilling its own important role; one to determine the day, one for the month, one for the year, one for the time and, finally, one for each person to travel to either the future or the past.

"Not again, Rosie!" Sam groaned. "We've talked about this, what, a hundred times? We're going through with this. If you don't want to be a part of it, you're free to leave."

"This is my home, Sam," Rosalie countered.

"Well, then you shouldn't have agreed to let us stay here."

Rosalie could tell that her friend was getting annoyed by her whining, but she couldn't help it. What they were doing was a massive intervention in their historic timeline. Who knew what their little experiment would result in? A total disaster, the third world war, the apocalypse?

"I'm just worried that we'll mess things up," she continued, unwilling to let the subject drop just yet.

Rosalie watched Cat cautiously as she re-adjusted the watch hands with calculated precision. It wasn't as easy as it looked and all of them had agreed that Catherine was the brains in their little group, leaving the numbers and calculations to her.

"We're not jumping in time," the dark-haired girl said, fully concentrated on the task at hand. "If we were, I'd totally agree with you, Rosie, but we're just brining over a handful of people – and only for a few hours." The watch hands clicked into place. "There, that's it. Are you guys ready for our guests?"

"Just one second before we go through with this," Matt added. "Which point of the story are we taking them from?"

"I thought it best that they already know each other," Cat said with a shrug. "I set the time to be in the morning of April 14th."

Matt frowned, then laughed. "So, we're gonna have a couple of people in coats in our living room in the middle of July?"

"Oh, shut up, Matthew," Cat replied with a smug grin. "You are more than welcome to help the ladies out of their coats, I'm sure."

She made sure that she'd set the parameters correctly before pushing down the small golden button that would bring no less than nine people from a hundred years ago to the very room they were now gathered in.

A blazing white light surrounded them and Cat shielded her eyes with her hands. They'd never tried the time machine before, so they had no idea of whether it would ultimately work but she had a good feeling that it would.

When the world around them had settled down again, the fob watch still and cool in her hand, Catherine met the bewildered stares of nine people dressed in rather old-fashioned clothes.

"It worked," she heard Sam whisper next to her. "It really worked…"

She nodded as she recognized Mr. Andrews who looked around curiously, then Jack who was carrying his sketch book and Cal who had a tight hold of a distressed-looking Rose.

"What in the world is going on here?" They all turned to see Mr. Ismay, a mix of confusion and anger on his face. "What is the meaning of this? I demand to know why I was interrupted during breakfast, and rather rudely might I add."

For a moment, there was silence in the room. Cat bit a snarky reply, regarding the man with a cool gaze instead.

"May I suggest that we all sit down and get comfortable first," Matt said calmly. "The reason you're all here might be a little bit hard to digest."

They had rehearsed this scene a lot, had to get familiar with whom they were inviting and, to a certain extent, how to react – polite enough to maintain the peace, forceful enough to show some backbone.

 _God, that sounds like it's out of a fantasy book,_ Cat thought.

There was a reason why they'd chosen Rosalie's home for this. It was the only one spacious enough to host thirteen people without getting claustrophobic. Three white sofas surrounded a glass table, the fireplace to their right was lit and the large TV in front of them already showed the main menu of the movie they were about to watch. The two matching arm chairs that normally stood in the corners in the back of the room had been moved to the rest of the sitting area, creating enough space for everyone to sit down.

Cat watched Rose who reluctantly sat down between her fiancé, who was still clutching onto her arm, and her mother who seemed to be all but comfortable in this new environment, pursing her lips.

"You're all here," Matt began when they had all settled down. "Because we brought you here."

Ismay snorted, it was clear that he believed none of it and it was hard to hold back and let Matt do the talking.

"You… _brought_ us here?" Mr. Andrews asked curiously. "How?"

Cat was surprised at his calm demeanor. In the movie, he was portrayed as a gentle, intelligent man and not at all as short-tempered and cocky as the rest of the upper-class people. That remained so calm and controlled in a situation like this, however, was not something she'd expected.

The others seemed content to let him ask the questions for now it seemed, although a quick glance at Caledon Hockley told Cat that they'd be hearing him talk sooner or later as well.

"We created a device with… unique abilities," Matt explained. "We call it a time machine. It will take you back to where you came from when we're done here."

"A time machine!?" Mr. Ismay echoed. "What nonsense is this? You don't actually believe him, do you, Mr. Andrews?"

"As peculiar as the situation seems, Mr. Ismay," Mr. Andrews replied. "I'm afraid I do. I cannot fathom to explain how this device works, but I have designed the Titanic myself and I can assure you, Sir, there is no place on my ship that is even remotely similar to this."

"Before we get too much into detail concerning time travel," Cat took over, seeing the direction the conversation was heading in. "Maybe we should explain why we brought you here. Do you see the large screen?"

She motioned toward the TV, drawing their visitors' attention away from the previous topic for a moment.

"It's called a TV," she explained. "It's a telecommunication medium used for transmitting moving images in black and white or in color. It won't be available to you for several years and it'll take even longer until the technology is as far developed as it is now."

"As… breathtaking as this new technology sounds, Miss…"

"Graham," Cat helped out. "Catherine Graham."

"Miss Graham," Cal added, his brown eyes looking at her intensely. "I do not see how this is related to anything and I, for one, see no reason to believe your absolutely ridiculous story."

"Perhaps, Mr. Hockley," Cat informed him coolly which earned her a very disapproving glare from Ruth DeWitt Bukater, one she pointedly ignored. "If you had let me finish, you'd know. But to make it simple, we'd like to show you a movie."

That earned her a few raised eyebrows and looks ranging from curious to angered. Cat ignored them all but she was glad for her friends' presence, knowing fully well that she wouldn't have been able to deal with the likes of Ismay and Hockley by herself.

"You see," she continued unfazed. "That little trip you're taking from Belfast to New York ended in such a disaster that, even a hundred years later, the Titanic is still remembered as one of the most tragic ship accidents of all time."

"I'm not sure what you are referring to, Miss Graham," Captain Smith replied, his eyes looking at her calmly. "Our journey has been going nothing but smoothly so far, there is no need to frighten our passengers."

Cat sighed, not sure how she should continue.

"Listen," she said. "All we want is to prevent the disaster from happening. I'm not going to tell you what it is, words can't really describe what happened back then. There is a movie about the Titanic, though – a very accurate one. We'd like you to watch it and, hopefully, draw the right conclusions. We'll send you back to your own time once it is finished."

Cat looked over to Rosalie, Sam and Matt who gave her encouraging smiles. To be honest, they had expected this to be much more difficult but to their great relief, their time-travelling visitors either took the news very well or had yet to get over the shock of having been transported to a modern-day living room.

"How accurate is this… movie of yours, Miss Graham?" Cat was surprised to hear Murdoch speak up. He'd been very quiet and reserved so far, very professional.

"From what we know from historic reports, as accurate as it gets, Mr. Murdoch," Sam replied in her stead. "Before we begin, I'd like to change the seating order though."

They looked at her, surprised at the sudden request. Rose got, if possible, even paler at those words and Cat couldn't hold it against her, knowing what the movie was about to reveal.

"Why?" Rosalie whispered. "The seating order is not related to the movie, Sam."

Sam nodded but there was a genuine look of concern in her eyes. "I know, but I want Rose as far away from Cal as possible. What do you think he'll do to her once he finds out she's been cheating on him?"

 _Damn,_ Cat thought. She silently thanked her friend for thinking ahead because Rose already looked uncomfortable enough as it was.

"We'd like Rose and Ruth to swap seats with Matt and me," Sam said out loud so everyone could hear her.

"There's no need for that," Cal said sweetly. "My fiancé will stay with me. Isn't that right, sweetpea?"

Rose swallowed hard and nodded, avoiding his gaze.

"You can have her back afterwards, Mr. Hockley," Matt replied determinedly. "I still do not see the need to separate me from my future wife-to-be," Cal said, his grip tightening and Rose winced slightly under the force.

"A couple of situations will come up that require some… _female_ advice, Mr. Hockley," Sam tried to convince him with a little lie. "It is why we ask Mrs. DeWitt Bukater to swap seats, too."

Reluctantly and not wanting to cause a scene, Cal let go of Rose's arm and Cat could almost hear the sigh of relief leaving the young girl's lips as she and her mother came to sit down beside Cat and Rosalie, Cal and the Riley siblings opposite of them.

"Great," Cat said with a smile. "Let's get started then."

* * *

 **What do you think of the first chapter? Yes, no, maybe? ;) Should I continue?**


	2. Chapter 2

**Here's chapter two of my story! Thank you for the kind reviews so far, I was very surprised to get them so shortly after posting the first chapter! :)**

 **\- 87GN: I've never really thought about using the old movie as a basis to show the events to be honest. It's a nice idea though. Unfortunately, I have already finished the first couple of chapters. I know that the 1997 movie is not 100% historically correct, but since I'm using the characters of this film, I've decided that - here - things happened the way Cameron displayed them. Luckily, it's only fiction, so we don't have to be historically correct. ;)**

 **\- Queenoffangirls18: Thanks a lot! Here's to hoping I can meet your expectations. :)**

 **\- Magic Maryse: My thoughts exactly when I started writing this piece of fiction. Love the idea of a survivor re-telling the story from their point of view.**

 **That said, I'd like to add a few things:**

 **I use the 1997 movie script in my story which I found online on a website. Everything taken from the script will be marked in old letters, I only corrected small typos that I could find and worked on the layout a little bit so it'll be easier to read. I did not edit the script so it would fit 100% with the movie!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own the movie or the characters in it, they sadly belong to James Cameron. My OCs are mine though. ;)**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

 **1 BLACKNESS**

 **Then two faint lights appear, close together... growing brighter. They resolve into two DEEP SUBMERSIBLES, free-falling toward us like express elevators.**

 **One is ahead of the other, and passes close enough to FILL FRAME, looking like a spacecraft blazing with lights, bristling with insectile manipulators.**

 **TILTING DOWN to follow it as it descends away into the limitless blackness below. Soon they are fireflies, then stars. Then gone.**

 **CUT TO:**

 **2 EXT./ INT. MIR ONE / NORTH ATLANTIC DEEP**

 **PUSHING IN on one of the falling submersibles, called MIR ONE, right up to its circular viewport to see the occupants.**

 **INSIDE, it is a cramped seven-foot sphere, crammed with equipment. ANATOLY MIKAILAVICH, the sub's pilot, sits hunched over his controls... singing softly in Russian.**

 **Next to him on one side is BROCK LOVETT. He's in his late forties, deeply tanned, and likes to wear his Nomex suit unzipped to show the gold from famous shipwrecks covering his gray chest hair. He is a wily, fast-talking treasure hunter, a salvage superstar who is part historian, part adventurer and part vacuum cleaner salesman. Right now, he is propped against the CO2 scrubber, fast asleep and snoring.**

 **On the other side, crammed into the remaining space is a bearded wide-body named LEWIS BODINE, he is also asleep. Lewis is an R.O.V. (REMOTELY OPERATED VEHICLE) pilot and is the resident Titanic expert.**

 **Anatoly glances at the bottom sonar and makes a ballast adjustment.**

 **CUT TO:**

 **3 EXT. THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA**

 **A pale, dead-flat lunar landscape. It gets brighter, lit from above, as MIR ONE enters FRAME and drops to the seafloor in a downblast from its thrusters. It hits bottom after its two-hour free-fall with a loud BONK.**

 **CUT TO:**

 **4 INT. MIR ONE**

 **Lovett and Bodine jerk awake at the landing.**

 **ANATOLY(heavy Russian accent): We are here.**

 **EXT. / INT. MIR ONE AND TWO**

 **5 MINUTES LATER: THE TWO SUBS skim over the seafloor to the sound of side scan sonar and the THRUM of big thrusters.**

 **6 The featureless gray clay of the bottom unrolls in the lights of the subs. Bodine is watching the side scan sonar display, where the outline of a huge pointed object is visible. Anatoly lies prone, driving the sub, his face pressed to the center port.**

 **BODINE: Come left a little. She's right in front of us, eighteen meters. Fifteen. Thirteen... you should see it.**

 **ANATOLY: Do you see it? I don't see it... there!**

 **Out of the darkness, like a ghostly apparition, the bow of the ship appears. Its knife-edge prow is coming straight at us, seeming to plow the bottom sediment like ocean waves. It towers above the seafloor, standing just as it landed 84 years ago.**

 **THE TITANIC. Or what is left of her. Mir One goes up and over the bow railing, intact except for an overgrowth of "rusticles" draping it like mutated Spanish moss.**

"Is that…?" Mr. Ismay asked in disbelief.

"The Titanic, yes," Sam replied.

"Impossible!" he exclaimed. "This ship is unsinkable! God himself couldn't sink her!"

"She's made of iron, Mr. Ismay," Cat said absentmindedly, her eyes fixed on the screen. "She can."

 **TIGHT ON THE EYEPIECE MONITOR of a video camcorder. Brock Lovett's face fills the BLACK AND WHITE FRAME.**

 **LOVETT: It still gets me every time.**

 **The image pans to the front viewport, looking over Anatoly's shoulder, to the bow railing visible in the lights beyond. Anatoly turns.**

 **ANATOLY: Is just your guilt because of estealing from the dead.**

 **CUT WIDER, to show that Brock is operating the camera himself, turning it in his hand so it points at his own face.**

 **LOVETT: Thanks, Tolya. Work with me, here.**

 **Brock resumes his serious, pensive gaze out the front port, with the camera aimed at himself at arm's length.**

 **LOVETT: It still gets me every time... to see the sad ruin of the great ship sitting here, where she landed at 2:30 in the morning, April 15, 1912, after her long fall from the world above.**

"April 15?" Murdoch asked. "That's in less than a day, Sir!"

Captain Smith nodded. He was reluctant to believe the story these four young people had so bluntly thrown at them. Yet, there she was, the wreck of the Titanic looming eerily in the darkness of the ocean.

"How?" Was all he asked but Cat shook her head.

"You will have to be patient, Captain Smith," she said. "You're all going to benefit from seeing this though. I promise that you'll get your answers soon."

She just hoped that Ruth would also truly see how unhappy her daughter was. It was still a long way until they'd reach the significant scenes in the movie, so they all had to be patient.

 **Anatoly rolls his eyes and mutters in Russian. Bodine chuckles and watches**

 **the sonar.**

 **BODINE: You are so full of shit, boss.**

 **7 Mir Two drives aft down the starboard side, past the huge anchor while Mir One passes over the seemingly endless forecastle deck, with its massive anchor chains still laid out in two neat rows, its bronze windlass caps gleaming. The 22 foot long subs are like white bugs next to the enormous wreck.**

 **LOVETT (V.O.): Dive nine. Here we are again on the deck of Titanic... two and a half miles down. The pressure is three tons per square inch, enough to crush us like a freight train going over an ant if our hull fails. These windows are nine inches thick and if they go, it's sayonara in two microseconds.**

"The ship is still surprisingly well intact," Matt said, watching the underwater footage. "I mean, for having been down there for a hundred years."

 **8 Mir Two lands on the boat deck, next to the ruins of the Officer's Quarters. Mir One lands on the roof of the deck house nearby.**

 **LOVETT: Right. Let's go to work.**

"What exactly are these men trying to achieve?" Ruth asked in her ever-so disapproving voice. "Stealing whatever treasures are left?"

"Not entirely," Rosalie replied with a knowing smile. "He's looking for something in particular, a diamond called the Heart of the Ocean. Cameron's main aim was to tell the story of the people who lost their lives when the ship sank and those who survived."

"Couldn't have put it in finer words, Rosie," Matt said with a grin.

 **Bodine slips on a pair of 3-D electronic goggles, and grabs the joystick controls of the ROV.**

 **9 OUTSIDE THE SUB, the ROV, a small orange and black robot called SNOOP DOG, lifts from its cradle and flies forward.**

 **BODINE (V.O.): Walkin' the dog.**

"What does he mean by that?" Rose asked.

She seemed to have relaxed somewhat since there was now some distance between her and Cal.

"He's referring to the robot," Cat explained. "He'll be using him to take a look around the deck. The subs are too big to go in, so they had to use smaller machines to get to the cabins."

Rose nodded.

 **SNOOP DOG drives itself away from the sub, paying out its umbilical behind it like a robot yo-yo. Its twin stereo-video cameras swivel like insect eyes. The ROV descends through an open shaft that once was the beautiful First Class Grand Staircase.**

 **Snoop Dog goes down several decks, then moves laterally into the First Class Reception Room.**

 **SNOOP'S VIDEO POV, moving through the cavernous interior. The remains of the ornate hand carved woodwork which gave the ship its elegance move through the floodlights, the lines blurred by slow dissolution and descending rusticle formations. Stalactites of rust hang down so that at times it looks like a natural grotto, then the scene shifts and the lines of a ghostly undersea mansion can be seen again.**

"Unbelievable," Mr. Andrews mutters. "Hardly recognizable anymore."

 **MONTAGE STYLE, as Snoop passes the ghostly images of Titanic's opulence:**

 **10 A grand piano in amazingly good shape, crashed on its side against a wall. The keys gleam black and white in the lights.**

 **11 A chandelier, still hanging from the ceiling by its wire... glinting as Snoop moves around it.**

 **12 Its lights play across the floor, revealing a champagne bottle, then some WHITE STAR LINE china... a woman's high-top "granny shoe". Then something eerie: what looks like a child's skull resolves into the porcelain head of a doll.**

Next to Cat, Rose gasps at the sight.

"They didn't even pack their belongings?" she whispered.

"They didn't have time to," Cat replied with a sad look in her eyes. "And there was not nearly enough space in the life boats."

Rose turned to look at her.

"The life boats," she said slowly as realization hit her. "There aren't nearly enough life boats for everyone onboard… My god… How- how many-?"

"A little over 1500," Rosalie said. "Most of them steerage passengers."

Rose glanced worriedly at Jack, a gesture that didn't go unnoticed by her mother.

"Rose!", she hissed. "Do you not remember what I have told you?"

Roe turned to her mother and regarded her with a cold stare. "Have you no heart, mother? Over half of the people onboard died!"

"Not, the better half," came Cal's bittersweet reply that rattled Cat to the bone. "Money always wins, sweetpea. You'd be wise to remember that when I marry you."

 **Snoop enters a corridor which is much better preserved. Here and there a door still hangs on its rusted hinges. An ornate piece of molding, a wall sconce... hint at the grandeur of the past.**

 **13 THE ROV turns and goes through a black doorway, entering room B-52, the sitting room of a "promenade suite", one of the most luxurious staterooms on Titanic.**

 **BODINE: I'm in the sitting room. Heading for bedroom B-54.**

 **LOVETT: Stay off the floor. Don't stir it up like you did yesterday.**

 **BODINE: I'm tryin' boss.**

 **Glinting in the lights are the brass fixtures of the near-perfectly preserved fireplace. An albino Galathea crab crawls over it. Nearby are the remains of a divan and a writing desk. The Dog crosses the ruins of the once elegant room toward another DOOR. It squeezes through the doorframe, scraping rust and wood chunks loose on both sides. It moves out of a cloud of rust and keeps on going.**

 **BODINE: I'm crossing the bedroom.**

 **The remains of a pillared canopy bed. Broken chairs, a dresser. Through the collapsed wall of the bathroom, the porcelain commode and bathtub took almost new, gleaming in the dark.**

 **LOVETT: Okay, I want to see what's under that wardrobe door.**

 **SEVERAL ANGLES as the ROV deploys its MANIPULATOR ARMS and starts moving debris aside. A lamp is lifted, its ceramic colors as bright as they were in 1912.**

 **LOVETT: Easy, Lewis. Take it slow.**

 **Lewis grips a wardrobe door, lying at an angle in a corner, and pulls it with Snoop's gripper. It moves reluctantly in a cloud of silt. Under it is a dark object. The silt clears and Snoop's cameras show them what was under the door...**

 **BODINE: Ooohh daddy-oh, are you seein' what I'm seein'?**

 **CLOSE ON LOVETT, watching his monitors. By his expression it is like he is seeing the Holy Grail.**

 **LOVETT: Oh baby baby baby. (grabs the mike) It's payday, boys.**

 **ON THE SCREEN, in the glare of the lights, is the object of their quest: a small STEEL COMBINATION SAFE.**

"That's my safe," Cal says matter-of-factly. "If he really is after the diamond, he won't find in there."

"And why is that, Mr. Hockley?", Murdoch asked.

"I'd never leave a possession of this value locked away in a safe to go down with the ship, Mr. Murdoch" he replied with a smug smile.

 **CUT TO:**

 **14 EXT. STERN OF DECK OF KEDYSH - DAY**

 **THE SAFE, dripping wet in the afternoon sun, is lowered onto the deck of a ship by a winch cable.**

 **We are on the Russian research vessel AKADEMIK MISTISLAV KELDYSH. A crowd has gathered, including most of the crew of KELDYSH, the sub crews, and a hand-wringing money guy named BOBBY BUELL who represents the limited partners. There is also a documentary video crew, hired by Lovett to cover his moment of glory.**

 **Everyone crowds around the safe. In the background Mir Two is being lowered into its cradle on deck by a massive hydraulic arm. Mir One is already recovered with Lewis Bodine following Brock Lovett as he bounds over to the safe like a kid on Christmas morning.**

 **BODINE: Who's the best? Say it.**

 **LOVETT: You are, Lewis. (to the video crew) You rolling?**

 **CAMERAMAN: Rolling.**

 **Brock nods to his technicians, and they set about drilling the safe's hinges. During this operation, Brock amps the suspense, working the lens to fill the time.**

 **LOVETT: Well, here it is, the moment of truth. Here's where we find out if the time, the sweat, the money spent to charter this ship and these subs, to come out here to the middle of the North Atlantic... were worth it. If what we think is in that same... is in that safe... it will be.**

 **Lovett grins wolfishly in anticipation of his greatest find yet. The door is pried loose. It clangs onto the deck. Lovett moves closer, peering into the safe's wet interior. A long moment then... his face says it all.**

 **LOVETT: Shit.**

"See? I could have told the fool of a man that his search would be in vain," Cal said smugly, leaning back on the sofa.

 **BODINE: You know, boss, this happened to Geraldo and his career never recovered.**

 **LOVETT (to the video cameraman): Get that outta my face.**

 **CUT TO:**

 **15 INT. LAB DECK, PRESERVATION ROOM - DAY**

 **Technicians are carefully removing some papers from the safe and placing them in a tray of water to separate them safely. Nearby, other artifacts from the stateroom are being washed and preserved.**

 **Buell is on the satellite phone with the INVESTORS. Lovett is yelling at the video crew.**

 **LOVETT: You send out what I tell you when I tell you. I'm signing your paychecks, not 60 minutes. Now get set up for the uplink.**

 **Buell covers the phone and turns to Lovett.**

 **BUELL: The partners want to know how it's going?**

 **LOVETT: How it's going? It's going like a first date in prison, whattaya think?!**

 **Lovett grabs the phone from Buell and goes instantly smooth.**

 **LOVETT: Hi, Dave? Barry? Look, it wasn't in the safe... no, look, don't worry about it, there're still plenty of places it could be... in the floor debris in the suite, in the mother's room, in the purser's safe on C deck... (seeing something) Hang on a second.**

 **A tech coaxes some letters in the water tray to one side with a tong... revealing a pencil (conte crayon) drawing of a woman.**

There was an audible gasp from everyone in the room as they recognize who the woman is.

"Rose!", Ruth exclaims, her eyes wide with shock as she looks at the nude drawing of her daughter. "Where- when-? Have you no decency at all?"

"I don't know how that drawing came to be in my safe, Rose," Cal said, a dangerous glint in his dark eyes. "And I can only guess who its artist is, but now that I know that the ship is going to sink, maybe we should keep it. What do you think, sweetpea? After all, it'll be worth a lot more after such a _tragic_ event."

Rose stared at him, too shocked and disgusted to even think of a worthy reply. How could her mother not see the monster Caledon Hockley truly was? Was she so blinded by money and power not to realize how unhappy her daughter was?

 **Brock looks closely at the drawing, which is in excellent shape, though its edges have partially disintegrated. The woman is beautiful, and beautifully rendered. In her late teens or early twenties, she is nude, though posed with a kind of casual modesty. She is on an Empire divan, in a pool of light that seems to radiate outward from her eyes. Scrawled in the lower right corner is the date: April 14 1912. And the initials JD.**

Cat's gaze flickered over to where Molly Brown sat in her arm chair. The woman hadn't said a word so far, merely observing the scene unfolding before her eyes. Right now, the knowing smile on her friendly face told Cat that the woman took in more of her surrounding than others gave her credit for.

She caught Cat's gaze and winked at her. Returning the gesture, Catherine smiled back and turned her head back to the TV screen.

 **The girl is not entirely nude. At her throat is a diamond necklace with one large stone hanging in the center.**

 **Lovett grabs a reference photo from the clutter on the lab table. It is a period black-and-white photo of a diamond necklace on a black velvet seller's display stand. He holds it next to the drawing. It is clearly the same piece... a complex setting with a massive central stone which is almost heart-shaped.**

 **LOVETT: I'll be God damned.**

 **CUT TO:**

 **16 INSERT**

 **A CNN NEWS STORY: a live satellite feed from the deck of the Keldysh,**

 **intercut with the CNN studio.**

 **ANNOUNCER: Treasure hunter Brock Lovett is best known for finding Spanish gold in sunken galleons in the Caribbean. Now he is using deep submergence technology to work two and a half miles down at another famous wreck... the Titanic. He is with us live via satellite from a Russian research ship in the middle of the Atlantic... hello Brock?**

 **LOVETT: Yes, hi, Tracy. You know, Titanic is not just a shipwreck, Titanic is THE shipwreck. It's the Mount Everest of shipwrecks.**

 **CUT TO:**

 **17 INT. HOUSE / CERAMICS STUDIO**

 **PULL BACK from the screen, showing the CNN report playing on a TV set in the living room of a small rustic house. It is full of ceramics, figurines, folk art, the walls crammed with drawings and paintings... things collected over a lifetime.**

 **PANNING to show a glassed-in studio attached to the house. Outside it is a quiet morning in Ojai, California. In the studio, amid incredible clutter, an ANCIENT WOMAN is throwing a pot on a potter's wheel. The liquid red clay covers her hands... hands that are gnarled and age-spotted, but still surprisingly strong and supple. A woman in her early forties assists her.**

 **LOVETT (V.O.): I've planned this expedition for three years, and we're out here recovering some amazing things... things that will have enormous historical and educational value.**

 **CNN REPORTER (V.O.): But it's no secret that education is not your main purpose. You're a treasure hunter. So what is the treasure you're hunting?**

 **LOVETT (V.O.): I'd rather show you than tell you, and we think we're very close to doing just that.**

 **The old woman's name is ROSE CALVERT. Her face is a wrinkled mass, her body shapeless and shrunken under a one-piece African-print dress.**

 **But her eyes are just as bright and alive as those of a young girl.**

 **Rose gets up and walks into the living room, wiping pottery clay from her hands with a rag. A Pomeranian dog gets up and comes in with her.**

 **The younger woman, LIZZY CALVERT, rushes to help her.**

 **ROSE: Turn that up please, dear.**

 **REPORTER (V.O.): Your expedition is at the center of a storm of controversy over salvage rights and even ethics. Many are calling you a grave robber.**

 **TIGHT ON THE SCREEN.**

 **LOVETT: Nobody called the recovery of the artifacts from King Tut's tomb grave robbing. I have museum-trained experts here, making sure this stuff is preserved and catalogued properly. Look at this drawing, which was found**

 **today...**

 **The video camera pans off Brock to the drawing, in a tray of water. The image of the woman with the necklace FILLS FRAME.**

 **LOVETT: ...a piece of paper that's been underwater for 84 years... and my team are able to preserve it intact. Should this have remained unseen at the bottom of the ocean for eternity, when we can see it and enjoy it now...?**

 **ROSE is galvanized by this image. Her mouth hangs open in amazement.**

 **ROSE: I'll be God damned.**

Ruth looked at the old woman on the screen. An actress, she told herself, yet the eyes were a spitting image of her daughter's.

"Do people in your time usually speak in such a crude and vulgar manner, Miss Graham?", she asked coolly, turning to face the dark-haired girl whose green eyes looked over to meet hers.

"If the occasion calls for it, yes," Catherine replied.

"I see," she retorted with a snort.

Clearly, the world's manners and traditions had lowered in their standards. She would see to it that Rose's behavior would remain intact and that of a proper lady. God knew, the girl had taken a turn for the worst ever since boarding that ship in Belfast. Despite having been in an arranged marriage herself, Ruth simply couldn't understand her daughter's demise. They'd have everything their hearts desired; money, the finest clothes and jewelry, elegant parties and all the luxury they could wish for.

As women, they'd always have to make sacrifices. The world was a hard and unforgiving place and all Ruth wanted was her daughter to live a life without having to worry about finances or food. Why did Rose have to be so selfish and stubborn not to see that?

 **CUT TO:**

 **18 EXT. KELDYSH DECK - NIGHT**

 **CUT TO KELDYSH. The Mir subs are being launched. Mir Two is already in the**

 **water, and Lovett is getting ready to climb into Mir One when Bobby Buell**

 **runs up to him.**

 **BUELL: There's a satellite call for you.**

 **LOVETT: Bobby, we're launching. See these submersibles here, going in the water? Take a message.**

 **BUELL: No, trust me, you want to take this call.**

 **CUT TO:**

 **19 INT. LAB DECK / KELDYSH - NIGHT**

 **Beull hands Lovett the phone, pushing down the blinking line. The call is from Rose and we see both ends of the conversation. She is in her kitchen with a mystified Lizzy.**

 **LOVETT: This is Brock Lovett. What can I do for you, Mrs... ?**

 **BUELL: Rose Calvert.**

"Calvert?" Rose asks bewildered.

"See," Cal intervened happily. "I told you that this… movie is nothing but pure fiction, sweetpea."

"I can assure you, Mr. Hockley," Matt replied. "That this movie as real as you and me together in this living room."

"My dear man," Mr. Ismay decided to cut in. "Clearly, Miss Dewitt Bukater is to marry the fine Mr. Hockley here, as you have undoubtedly noticed. There is no – "

"Oh, I know, Mr. Ismay," Matt interrupted him. "But just because something is, doesn't mean it's going to stay that way."

"This is getting ridiculous!" Ismay exclaimed.

 **LOVETT: ... Mrs. Calvert?**

 **ROSE: I was just wondering if you had found the "Heart of the Ocean" yet, Mr. Lovett.**

 **Brock almost drops the phone. Bobby sees his shocked expression...**

 **BUELL: I told you, you wanted to take this call.**

 **LOVETT (to Rose): Alright. You have my attention, Rose. Can you tell me who the woman in the picture is?**

 **ROSE: Oh yes. The woman in the picture is me.**

Jack leaned back in his arm chair. None of the others had paid much attention to him which had given him the chance to observe them. He was more than relieved to see that the people who'd somehow brought them to wherever this place was had taken Rose away from the man who'd been trapping her in this blasted engagement she wanted no part of.

He had no reason to trust these strangers but something in Catherine Graham's eyes had told him that they were telling the truth. If this old woman they were seeing on the screen really was his Rose, even if she didn't carry his name, she must have survived whatever happened that fateful night in the middle of the North Atlantic. He didn't care whether he had made it or not, she was more important to him than anyone he'd ever met and the day he'd won the tickets to board Titanic had been the luckiest day in his life.

* * *

 **As before, I hope that you liked what I did here. Feel free to leave behind a review to tell me what your thoughts are!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Wow, I didn't think this story would be so well received! Thank you all so much for your kind words.**

 **\- Queenoffangirls18: I think at the end of the movie, especially in the scene on the Carpathia that was cut out where Ruth is looking for Rose, we get to see that she's not all materialistic but actually cares about her daughter. Of course, since we never get to hear her thoughts, all we can do is guess and this is just my personal opinion. I know that a lot of people think differently.**

 **\- Guest: Assuming that you are the same Guest who wrote the other review on chapter two as well, thank you. I'm trying to make everyone stay in character which is easier said than done, especially with the ones we don't get to see much of in the movie. I hope I'm doing them justice. I don't know why but I find Jack especially difficult to write, I'm working on it though. ;)**

 **\- spikessweetgirl75: Thanks! I often have to rewrite their reactions or throw in another comment or two. Since they're not reading a book/the script, they only have the images and spoken lines to refer to. They can't know, for example, that old Rose is old Rose when we meet her for the first time in the movie, even though the script says so from the beginning.**

 **\- Emerald Charms: Not sure where you read any comments from Molly in the second chapter, but she sure will make more appearances in the future! xD She was only mentioned once. lol Nevertheless, thanks for the kind review! Yes, Cal is probably as much fun to write as he is to read. Although he is a slimy little git and I really can't stand him - him and Ismay.**

 **Anyway, here is the third chapter! I hope that you'll enjoy it as much as the other two! :)**

* * *

 **20 EXT. OCEAN - DAY**

 **SMASH CUT TO AN ENORMOUS SEA STALLION HELICOPTER thundering across the ocean. PAN 180 degrees as it roars past. There is no land at either horizon. The Keldysh is visible in the distance.**

 **CLOSE ON A WINDOW of the monster helicopter. Rose's face is visible, looking out calmly.**

 **CUT TO:**

 **21 EXT. KELDYSH - DAY**

 **Brock and Bodine are watching Mir 2 being swung over the side to start a**

 **dive.**

 **BODINE: She's a goddamned liar! A nutcase. Like that... what's her name? That Anastasia babe.**

 **BUELL: They're inbound.**

 **Brock nods and the three of them head forward to meet the approaching hele.**

 **BODINE: She says she's Rose DeWitt Bukater, right? Rose DeWitt Bukater died on the Titanic. At the age of 17. If she'd've lived, she'd be over a hundred now.**

Ruth pursed her lips. She wasn't sure how much of this nonsense she could bear to listen to. The Titanic had not sunk yet and she saw absolutely no reason why it should sink any time soon.

Even if it did, they were first-class passengers. They would be granted a seat in a life boat before any of the lower classes would even be allowed on deck. It was just one of many advantages money brought with it – it would keep them save and, more importantly, it would keep them alive.

 **LOVETT: A hundred and one next month.**

 **BODINE: Okay, so she's a very old goddamned liar. I traced her as far back as the 20's... she was working as an actress in L.A. An actress. Her name was Rose Dawson. Then she married a guy named Calvert, moved to Cedar Rapids, had two kids. Now Calvert's dead, and from what I've heard Cedar Rapids is dead.**

" _Dawson,_ " Cal spat out the name as if it were pure evil and gave his fiancée a look that made Cat shiver. "I think we have much to _discuss_ when we return home, _darling_. Don't you agree?"

Rose lowered her eyes. Her heart was beating so erratically in her chest, she was sure the others could hear it. She'd never seen Cal look at her this way, a sickeningly sweet expression mixed with so much hatred and anger that she was too terrified to even reply.

"Look at me when I talk to you," he said coolly.

"With that look on your face, Cal, I'm surprised she isn't down in tears," Molly retorted.

 **The Sea Stallion approaches the ship, BG, forcing Brock to yell over the**

 **rotors.**

 **LOVETT: And everybody who knows about the diamond is supposed to be dead... or on this ship. But she knows about it. And I want to hear what she has to say. Got it?**

 **CUT TO:**

 **22 EXT. KELDYSH HELIPAD**

 **IN A THUNDERING DOWNBLAST the helicopter's wheels bounce down on the helipad.**

 **Lovett, Buell and Bodine watch as the HELICOPTER CREW CHIEF hands out about ten suitcases, and then Rose is lowered to the deck in a wheelchair by Keldysh crewmen. Lizzy, ducking unnecessarily under the rotor, follows her out, carrying FREDDY the Pomeranian. The crew chief hands a puzzled Keldysh crewmember a goldfish bowl with several fish in it. Rose does not travel light.**

 **HOLD ON the incongruous image of this little old lady, looking impossibly fragile amongst all the high-tech gear, grungy deck crew and gigantic equipment.**

 **BODINE: S'cuse me, I have to go check our supply of Depends.**

 **CUT TO:**

 **23 INT. ROSE'S STATEROOM / KELDYSH - DAY**

 **Lizzy is unpacking Rose's things in the small utilitarian room. Rose is placing a number of FRAMED PHOTOS on the bureau, arranging them carefully next to the fishbowl. Brock and Bodine are in the doorway.**

 **LOVETT: Is your stateroom alright?**

 **ROSE: Yes. Very nice. Have you met my granddaughter, Lizzy? She takes care of me.**

 **LIZZY: Yes. We met just a few minutes ago, grandma. Remember, up on deck?**

 **ROSE: Oh, yes.**

 **Brock glances at Bodine... oh oh. Bodine rolls his eyes. Rose finishes arranging her photographs. We get a general glimpse of them: the usual snapshots... children and grandchildren, her late husband.**

 **ROSE: There, that's nice. I have to have my pictures when I travel. And Freddy of course. (to the Pomeranian) Isn't that right, sweetie.**

 **LOVETT: Would you like anything?**

 **ROSE: I should like to see my drawing.**

"Now things are gonna get interesting," Matt muttered with a grin.

"Whatever do you mean, Mr…?" Ruth asked.

"Riley," he added. "You'll just have to be patient and see for yourself, Mrs. DeWitt Bukater."

Not content with being left in the dark, Ruth gave him a cold glance and went back to watching the screen.

 **CUT TO:**

 **24 INT. LAB DECK, PRESERVATION AREA**

 **Rose looks at the drawing in its tray of water, confronting herself across a span of 84 years. Until they can figure out the best way to preserve it, they have to keep it immersed. It sways and ripples, almost as if alive.**

 **TIGHT ON Rose's ancient eyes, gazing at the drawing.**

 **25 FLASHCUT of a man's hand, holding a conte crayon deftly creating a shoulder and the shape of her hair with two efficient lines.**

 **26 THE WOMAN'S FACE IN THE DRAWING, dancing under the water.**

 **27 A FLASHCUT of a man's eyes, just visible over the top of a sketching pad. They look up suddenly right into the LENS. Soft eyes, but fearlessly direct.**

"I knew it," Cal muttered with a snort and a disparaging look toward Jack who calmly met his gaze.

None of the others dared interfere. It was embarrassing enough for Mrs. DeWitt Bukater and Mr. Hockley as it was, there was no need to make matters worse.

 **28 Rose smiles, remembering. Brock has the reference photo of the necklace in his hand.**

 **LOVETT: Louis the Sixteenth wore a fabulous stone, called the Blue Diamond of the Crown, which disappeared in 1792, about the time Louis lost everything from the neck up. The theory goes that the crown diamond was chopped too... recut into a heart-like shape... and it became Le Coeur de la Mer. The Heart of the Ocean. Today it would be worth more than the Hope Diamond.**

 **ROSE: It was a dreadful, heavy thing. (she points at the drawing) I only wore it this once.**

"Dreadful and heavy," Cal said calmly. "Is that what my love for you is, darling? _Dreadful_ , a _burden_ that has been placed on your shoulders?"

He didn't seem hurt, just angered.

Ruth gave her daughter a stern look, silently chiding her for these words. Couldn't she see that Cal loved her?

 **LIZZY: You actually believe this is you, grandma?**

 **ROSE: It is me, dear. Wasn't I a hot number?**

Mr. Andrews, Molly, Jack and the four students chuckled at the comment.

 **LOVETT: I tracked it down through insurance records... and old claim that was settled under terms of absolute secrecy. Do you know who the claimant was, Rose?**

 **ROSE: Someone named Hockley, I should imagine.**

 **LOVETT: Nathan Hockley, right. Pittsburgh steel tycoon. For a diamond necklace his son Caledon Hockley bought in France for his fiancée... you... a week before he sailed on Titanic. And the claim was filed right after the sinking. So the diamond had to've gone down with the ship. (to Lizzy) See the date?**

 **LIZZY: April 14, 1912.**

Cal's eyes returned to his fiancée.

"Perhaps I should just let him draw you," he suggested.

Rose didn't even turn to look at him, her eyes intently fixed on the screen.

 **LOVETT: If your grandma is who she says she is, she was wearing the diamond the day Titanic sank. (to Rose) And that makes you my new best friend. I will happily compensate you for anything you can tell us that will lead to its recovery.**

 **ROSE: I don't want your money, Mr. Lovett. I know how hard it is for people who care greatly for money to give some away.**

"I have said it before, Rose, and I'm going to say it again," Cal said following old Rose's words. "There's nothing I would deny you, if you would not deny me. I'd buy you the world, if you'd let me, sweetpea."

 _But you'd do it for the wrong reasons, Cal,_ Rose bitterly added.

 **BODINE (skeptical): You don't want anything?**

 **ROSE (indicating the drawing): You may give me this, if anything I tell you is of value.**

 **LOVETT: Deal. (crossing the room) Over here are a few things we've recovered from your staterooms.**

 **Laid out on a worktable are fifty or so objects, from mundane to valuable. Rose, shrunken in her chair, can barely see over the table top. With a trembling hand she lifts a tortoise shell hand mirror, inlaid with mother of pearl. She caresses it wonderingly.**

 **ROSE: This was mine. How extraordinary! It looks the same as the last time I saw it.**

 **She turns the mirror over and looks at her ancient face in the cracked glass.**

 **ROSE: The reflection has changed a bit.**

 **She spies something else, a silver and moonstone art-nouveau brooch.**

 **ROSE: My mother's brooch. She wanted to go back for it. Caused quite a fuss.**

Ruth's eyes widened as she, too, recognized the very brooch she was currently wearing. Subconsciously, her hand moved to the object decorating her collar. It felt cool and familiar underneath her touch.

"A mere coincidence," she dismissed the scene nonchalantly.

"The objects they're showing in the movie are real, Mrs. DeWitt Bukater," Rosalie said. "You better start believing us. It might just be to your own benefit."

"Ridiculous," Ruth snorted.

 **Rose picks up an ornate art-nouveau HAIR COMB. A jade butterfly takes flight on the ebony handle of the comb. She turns it slowly, remembering. We can see that Rose is experiencing a rush of images and emotions that have lain dormant for eight decades as she handles the butterfly comb**

 **LOVETT: Are you ready to go back to Titanic?**

 **CUT TO:**

 **29 INT. IMAGING SHACK / KELDYSH**

 **It is a darkened room lined with TV monitors. IMAGES OF THE WRECK fill the screens, fed from Mir One and Two, and the two ROVs, Snoop Dog and DUNCAN.**

 **BODINE: Live from 12,000 feet.**

 **ROSE stares raptly at the screens. She is enthralled by one in particular, an image of the bow railing. It obviously means something to her. Brock is studying her reactions carefully.**

Unnoticed by the rest of the attendees, Rose glanced over to Jack, a mysterious smile gracing her delicate features as she remembered the first kiss she'd shared with him at this place.

He caught her eye and winked, a smirk on his lips. It was their secret, a secret only they shared – one that would soon be uncovered.

 **BODINE: The bow's struck in the bottom like an axe, from the impact. Here... I can run a simulation we worked up on this monitor over here.**

 **Lizzy turns the chair so Rose can see the screen of Bodine's computer. As he is calling up the file, he keeps talking.**

 **BODINE: We've put together the world's largest database on the Titanic. Okay, here...**

 **LOVETT: Rose might not want to see this, Lewis.**

 **ROSE: No, no. It's fine. I'm curious.**

Thomas Andrews couldn't help but smile fondly at the memory of a younger Rose catching him nose-deep in his notebook, already working on improvements for future projects.

 **Bodine starts a COMPUTER ANIMATED GRAPHIC on the screen, which parallels his rapid-fire narration.**

 **BODINE: She hits the berg on the starboard side and it sort of bumps along... punching holes like a Morse code... dit dit dit, down the side. Now she's flooding in the forward compartments... and the water spills over the tops of the bulkheads, going aft. As her bow is going down, her stern is coming up... slow at first... and then faster and faster until it's lifting all that weight, maybe 20 or 30 thousand tons... out of the water and the hull can't deal... so SKRTTT! (making a sound in time with the animation) ... it splits! Right down to the keel, which acts like a big hinge. Now the bow swings down and the stern falls back level... but the weight of the bow pulls the stern up vertical, and then the bow section detaches, heading for the bottom. The stern bobs like a cork, floods and goes under about 2:20 a.m. Two hours and forty minutes after the collision.**

Captain Edward Smith watched the simulation emotionless. He now had the answer to his earlier question but there was one more thing troubling his mind.

"How did it come this far, Miss Graham?", he asked.

"I won't go into detail," Cat replied evenly. "You'll see in due time. All I can tell you right now is that this," she pointed at the screen, "is the result of human failure and man's never-ending greed for public recognition."

Smith nodded. "Is this why you have asked us to come?"

Cat smiled and looked at the man with over two decades experience as captain. "For some of you, it is. For others," she glanced towards Rose and Ruth, "it's only partly why they're here."

 **The animation then follows the bow section as it sinks. Rose watches this clinical dissection of the disaster without emotion.**

 **BODINE: The bow pulls out of its dive and planes away, almost a half a mile, before it hits the bottom going maybe 12 miles an hour. KABOOM!**

 **The bow impacts, digging deeply into the bottom, the animation now follows the stern.**

 **BODINE: The stern implodes as it sinks, from the pressure, and rips apart from the force of the current as it falls, landing like a big pile of junk. (indicating the simulation) Cool huh?**

 **ROSE: Thank you for that fine forensic analysis, Mr. Bodine. Of course, the experience of it was somewhat less clinical.**

 **LOVETT: Will you share it with us?**

 **Her eyes go back to the screens, showing the sad ruins far below them.**

 **A VIEW from one of the subs TRACKING SLOWLY over the boat deck. Rose recognizes one of the Wellin davits, still in place. She hears ghostly waltz music. The faint and echoing sound of an officer's voice, English accented, calling "Women and children only".**

 **30 FLASH CUTS of screaming faces in a running crowd. Pandemonium and terror. People crying, praying, kneeling on the deck. Just impressions... flashes in the dark.**

 **31 Rose Looks at another monitor. SNOOP DOG moving down a rusted, debris-filled corridor. Rose watches the endless row of doorways sliding past, like dark mouths.**

 **32 IMAGE OF A CHILD, three years old, standing ankle deep in water in the middle of an endless corridor. The child is lost alone, crying.**

Despite the short glimpses of horror awaiting the passengers on the Titanic, the pictures have obviously touched the majority of their guests from the pasts.

"My god…," Murdoch whispered.

Cat nodded. She'd cried when she'd watched the movie for the first time together with her parents and Sam. Having learned that Cameron hadn't just made up a script for the film, she and her three best friends had searched for a way to help these poor souls. They'd found a solution by creating a time machine, as unbelievable as it now sounded in her head.

 **33 Rose is shaken by the flood of memories and emotions. Her eyes well up and she puts her head down, sobbing quietly.**

 **LIZZY (taking the wheelchair): I'm taking her to rest.**

 **ROSE: No!**

"You haven't changed at all, darling," Cal said. "Age doesn't become you, it seems."

"Now, now, Mr. Hockley," Captain Smith replied. "There's no need for such words."

 **Her voice is surprisingly strong. The sweet little old lady is gone, replaced by a woman with eyes of steel. Lovett signals everyone to stay quiet.**

 **LOVETT: Tell us, Rose.**

 **She looks from screen to screen, the images of the ruined ship.**

 **ROSE: It's been 84 years...**

 **LOVETT: Just tell us what you can-**

 **ROSE (holds up her hand for silence): It's been 84 years... and I can still smell the fresh paint. The china had never been used. The sheets had never been slept in.**

 **He switches on the minirecorder and sets it near her.**

 **ROSE: Titanic was called the Ship of Dreams. And it was. It really was...**

 **As the underwater camera rises past the rusted bow rail, WE DISSOLVE / MATCH MOVE to that same railing in 1912...**

"I think we're going to see now how wrong we are, Mrs. DeWitt Bukater," Sam said with a smirk. "If anything is not accurate, feel free to inform us. Otherwise, I suggest you accept the truth you're about to see."

Cat couldn't hold back the grin. Sam had always been one to say what was on her mind.

 _"_ _The truth hurts, Cat," she'd told her once. "If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen."_

 **MATCH DISSOLVE:**

 **34 EXT. SOUTHAMPTON DOCK - DAY**

 **SHOT CONTINUES IN A FLORIOUS REVEAL as the gleaming white superstructure of Titanic rises mountainously beyond the rail, and above that the buff colored funnels stand against the sky like the pillars of a great temple. Crewmen move across the deck, dwarfed by the awesome scale of the steamer.**

 **Southampton, England, April 10, 1912. It is almost noon on ailing day. A crowd of hundreds blackens the pier next to Titanic like ants on a jelly sandwich.**

A collective gasp went through the room as the nine visitors from the past got a first glimpse at the entirety of the enormous ship.

"She truly is a sight to behold, Mr. Andrews," Rose complimented him. "I don't think anyone could have done a finer job."

"Thank you, Rose," Mr. Andrews answered with a sad smile. "However, it seems that I didn't build you a strong enough ship to take you to New York safely."

"I'm afraid we'll have to disagree, Mr. Andrews," Cat said which earned her firm nods from her friends. "It's a proven fact that the special safety mechanisms onboard the Titanic bought the crew members enough time to rescue over seven-hundred people that night. A normal ship would never have lasted well over two hours afloat with this kind of damage."

She was trying to make him understand that the sinking was not a mechanical fault.

"Thank you for attempting to take this burden off my shoulders, Miss Graham, but-," Mr. Andrews began but it was Matt who interrupted him this time.

"She's right," he said firmly. "If you go on to watch the movie, you'll see that none of it was your fault."

"He's right, Andrews," Molly jumped in with her usual positive attitude. "The boy seems to know what he's talkin' about."

 **IN FG a gorgeous burgundy RENAULT TOURING CAR swings into frame, hanging from a loading crane. It is lowered toward HATCH #2.**

 **On the pier horse drawn vehicles, motorcars and lorries move slowly through the dense throng. The atmosphere is one of excitement and general giddiness. People embrace in tearful farewells, or wave and shout bon voyage wishes to friends and relatives on the decks above.**

 **A white RENAULT, leading a silver-gray DAIMLER-BENZ, pushes through the crowd leaving a wake in the press of people. Around the handsome cars people are streaming to board the ship, jostling with hustling seamen and stokers, porters, and barking WHITE STAR LINE officials.**

 **The Renault stops and the LIVERIED DRIVER scurries to open the door for a YOUNG WOMAN dressed in a stunning white and purple outfit, with an enormous feathered hat. She is 17 years old and beautiful, regal of bearing, with piercing eyes.**

Ruth gasped at the sight of her daughter. It was exactly as she remembered it, the day they arrived at the docks and received their first glimpses of the ship of dreams.

"Told ya," Sam said triumphantly.

"This is… impossible," the matriarch of the DeWitt Bukater family whispered to herself.

"It's not," Cat countered.

 **It is the girl in the drawing. ROSE. She looks up at the ship, taking it in with cool appraisal.**

 **ROSE: I don't see what all the fuss is about. It doesn't look any bigger than the Mauretania.**

The remark earned her a few chuckles from around the room.

 **A PERSONAL VALET opens the door on the other side of the car for CALEDON HOCKLEY, the 30-year old heir to the elder Hockley's fortune. "Cal" is handsome, arrogant and rich beyond meaning.**

 **CAL: You can be blasé about some things, Rose, but not about Titanic. It's over a hundred feet longer than Mauretania, and far more luxurious. It has squash courts, a Parisian cafe... even Turkish baths.**

 **Cal turns and gives his hand to Rose's mother, RUTH DEWITT BUKATER, who descends from the touring car being him. Ruth is a 40ish society empress, from one of the most prominent Philadelphia families. She is a widow, and rules her household with iron will.**

 **CAL: Your daughter is much too hard to impress, Ruth. (indicating a puddle) Mind your step.**

Unable to fully comprehend what she was seeing, Ruth DeWitt Bukater stared at herself on the screen. It was like looking into a mirror and seeing one's reflection; the same clothes, not a hair out of place, the same voice and words leaving her mouth.

 **RUTH (gazing at the leviathan): So this is the ship they say is unsinkable.**

 **CAL: It is unsinkable. God himself couldn't sink this ship.**

 _God didn't sink that ship, an iceberg did,_ Cat thought upon hearing Cal's words.

 **Cal speaks with the pride of a host providing a special experience.**

 **This entire entourage of rich Americans is impeccably turned out, a quintessential example of the Edwardian upper class, complete with servants. Cal's VALET, SPICER LOVEJOY, is a tall and impassive, dour as an undertaker. Behind him emerge TWO MAIDS, personal servants to Ruth and Rose.**

 **A WHITE STAR LINE PORTER scurries toward them, harried by last minute loading.**

 **PORTER: Sir, you'll have to check your baggage through the main terminal, round that way-**

 **Cal nonchalantly hands the man a fiver. The porter's eyes dilate. Five pounds was a monster tip in those days.**

"My god, Caledon," Ruth said. "Was it really necessary to give him this much?"

Cat could feel Rose tense next to her.

"I had to make sure he understood my rank in society, my dear Ruth," Cal replied charmingly. "Although, knowing it all went to the bottom of the sea, I shouldn't have given him anything."

A dry laugh left his lips but only Mr. Ismay seemed equally amused by his remark.

Cat glanced over at Murdoch who had a hard look in his eyes. Apparently, he, too, had just have to swallow down a retort.

 _Good,_ she thought. _Looks like there are more people in 1912 who disapprove of Cal's behavior._

 **CAL: I put my faith in you, good sir. (curtly, indicating Lovejoy) See my man.**

 **PORTER: Yes, sir. My pleasure, sir.**

 **Cal never tires of the effect of money on the unwashed masses.**

 **LOVEJOY (to the porter): These trunks here, and 12 more in the Daimler. We'll have all this lot up in the rooms.**

 **The White Star man looks stricken when he sees the enormous pile of steamer trunks and suitcases loading down the second car, including wooden crates and steel safe. He whistles frantically for some cargo-handlers nearby who come running.**

 **Cal breezes on, leaving the minions to scramble. He quickly checks his pocket watch.**

 **CAL: We'd better hurry. This way, ladies.**

 **He indicates the way toward the first-class gangway. They move into the crowd. TRUDY BOLT, Rose's maid, hustles behind them, laden with bags of her mistress's most recent purchases... things too delicate for the baggage handlers.**

 **Cal leads, weaving between vehicles and handcarts, hurrying passengers (mostly second class and steerage) and well-wishers. Most of the first-class passengers are avoiding the smelly press of the dockside crowd by using an elevated boarding bridge, twenty feet above.**

 **They pass a line of steerage passengers in their coarse wool and tweeds, queued up inside movable barriers like cattle in a chute. A HEALTH OFFICER examines their heads one by one, checking scalp and eyelashes for lice.**

 **They pass a well-dressed young man cranking the handle of a wooden Biograph "cinematograph" camera mounted on a tripod. DANIEL MARVIN (whose father founded the Biograph Film Studio) is filming his young bride in front of the Titanic. MARY MARVIN stands stiffly and smiles, self-conscious.**

 **DANIEL: Look up at the ship, darling, that's it. You're amazed! You can't believe how big it is! Like a mountain. That's great.**

A very un-lady-like giggle escaped Rose as she recognized the two people.

"Rose," her mother chided her. "What has gotten into you?"

Of course, the proper upper-class woman did not _giggle_ in that manner, especially if gentlemen of Mr. Ismay's rank were present.

 **Mary Marvin, without an acting fiber in her body, does a bad Clara Bow pantomime of awe, hands raised.**

 **Cal is jostled by two yelling steerage boys who shove past him. And he is bumped again a second later by the boys' father.**

 **CAL: Steady!**

"The nerve of these people!" Ruth exclaimed with a shake of her head.

 **MAN: Sorry squire!**

 **The Cockney father pushes on, after his kids, shouting.**

 **CAL: Steerage swine. Apparently missed his annual bath.**

Appalled by his comment, Sam couldn't hold back any longer.

"At least he gets an annual bath," she retorted sarcastically, making her disapproval obvious. "Unlike other people who are covered in so much slime that one just has to wonder if they've ever even seen a _drop_ of water in their entire life."

"Outrageous!" Mr. Ismay shouted.

"Oh, shut up, Ismay," Sam said angrily. "You're no better than him and you know it."

"I did not come here to listen to your insults, young lady," he replied furiously.

"Oh, you'll see why you're here, Mr. Ismay," Sam said bluntly. "We'll have to wait till the middle of the movie, but you'll contribute your fair share to Titanic's fate, believe me."

Ismay looked like he had no intentions of dropping the subject but Captain Smith put a hand on his shoulder to calm him down.

 **RUTH: Honestly, Cal, if you weren't forever booking everything at the last instant, we could have gone through the terminal instead of running along the dock like some squalid immigrant family.**

 **CAL: All part of my charm, Ruth. At any rate, it was my darling fiancée's beauty rituals which made us late.**

"Nothin' against that, Rose darling," Molly said with a laugh. "Us women have to take their time for our beauty!"

 **ROSE: You told me to change.**

 **CAL: I couldn't let you wear black on sailing day, sweetpea. It's bad luck.**

 **ROSE: I felt like black.**

Cat knew why Rose chose to dress in mourning colors – and the others would too in a couple of minutes.

 **Cal guides them out of the path of a horse-drawn wagon loaded down with two tons of OXFORD MARMALADE, in wooden cases, for Titanic's Victualling Department.**

 **CAL: Here I've pulled every string I could to book us on the grandest ship in history, in her most luxurious suites... and you act as if you're going to your execution.**

"Oh, but I did," Rose whispered so quietly that only Cat and her mother could hear her.

 **Rose looks up as the hull of Titanic looms over them...a great iron wall, Bible black and sever. Cal motions her forward, and she enters the gangway to the D Deck doors with a sense of overwhelming dread.**

 **OLD ROSE (V.O.): It was the ship of dreams... to everyone else. To me it was a slave ship, taking me back to America in chains.**

 **CLOSE ON CAL'S HAND IN SLOW-MOTION as it closes possessively over Rose's arm. He escorts her up the gangway and the black hull of Titanic swallows them.**

 **OLD ROSE (V.O.): Outwardly I was everything a well brought up girl should be. Inside, I was screaming.**

"Don't be ridiculous, darling," Cal said. "There's no reason to act like this."

 _Oh, but there is,_ Rose thought. _You._

She left the words unspoken, however, hoping for the first time that her mother would come to recognize the hell she was putting her though. Maybe with the help of her older self narrating the events, the people around her would come to understand how she truly felt.

 **35 CUT TO a SCREAMING BLAST from the mighty triple steam horns on Titanic's funnels, bellowing their departure warning.**

* * *

 **I chose to make the cut here because we'll get to meet Jack in the next one! :) As always, feel free to leave behind a review! See you all in the next chapter!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hi everyone!**

 **My apologies for keeping you waiting but I was down with a cold and didn't feel like doing anything apart from sleeping. This was a very emotional chapter towards the end and I kind of let out my frustration about Rose's whole situation a bit. I won't get into detail, you can just read it for yourselves. :)**

 **\- Magic Maryse: Thanks a lot! Sam is probably the favorite of my four OCs. She is fun to write because she just states her opinion - whether it's asked for or not. ;)**

 **\- animebella90: Thank you! I'll try to update regularly. Of course, with university starting again next week and work I will most likely not be able to post a new chapter every day but I'll try my best.**

 **\- milagro yuval: Thank you so much! Your comment is very much appreciated and, as I mentioned before, I'll try to keep the updates as frequent as possible. You'll just have to stick around to see what happens once our beloved characters are back in their own timeline! :)**

 **To answer your question: Yes, this is the movie script. I found it on Google and have only worked on the layout to make it easier to read. I haven't done any changes to the content though. Yes, I know that the script differs from the movie but I couldn't find anything else - I suppose it's because scenes are often cut out of the movie or are changed throughout the filming process.**

 **I really hope you all enjoy what I did here! Have fun reading!**

* * *

 **CUT TO:**

 **36 EXT. SOUTHAMPTON DOCKS / TITANIC - DAY**

 **A VIEW OF TITANIC from several blocks away, towering above the terminal buildings like the skyline of a city. The steamer's whistle echoes across Southampton.**

 **PULL BACK, revealing that we were looking through a window, and back further to show the smoky inside of a pub. It is crowded with dockworkers and ship's crew.**

 **Just inside the window, a poker game is in progress. FOUR MEN, in working class clothes, play a very serious hand.**

 **JACK DAWSON and FABRIZIO DE ROSSI, both about 20, exchange a glance as the other two players argue in Swedish. Jack is American, a lanky drifter with his hair a little long for the standards of the times. He is also unshaven, and his clothes are rumpled from sleeping in them. He is an artist, and has**

 **adopted the bohemian style of art scene in Paris. He is also very self-possessed and sure-footed for 20, having lived on his own since 15.**

Ruth gave Jack a measuring glance. To her, he embodied the very thing she had wanted to keep away from her daughter; a common third-class passenger, unable to provide for her, let alone a family.

"I imagine, Mr. Dawson, that your previously mentioned – what did you call it? – _lucky hand at poker_ is what we are seeing here?", she said with just enough iciness in her voice to make her opinion of him obvious.

"That's correct, Ma'am," Jack replied steadily and met her gaze with an honest smile. "Luck was on my side that day, I couldn't have wished for a better hand."

He'd been in the midst of the snake pit before when Cal had invited him to dine with the first-class passengers after saving Rose from certain death. It had been nothing but another move in Hockley's grand game of power to keep up the façade but, with no small thanks to Molly Brown, Jack had made it out in one piece.

"I see." Ruth had regained her composition quickly enough to change the status quo once more. "Is this… lifestyle you are currently leading your idea of supporting your future wife and children, Mr. Dawson? Gambling and - what else was it - drawing?"

She regarded him with a smile as fake and poisonous as a viper's bite. Cat followed their dynamic with keen interest, curious to see whether Jack Dawson would be able to hold his ground against Ruth DeWitt Bukater.

"No, Ma'am," he replied with his hands folded neatly in his lap. "With respect, at the end of the day, it's honest work that supports a family. Drawing is merely a hobby of mine, a means to pass time or capture a moment of true beauty."

"Hear, hear," Molly interrupted with a laugh. "Well said, Jack, well said."

"Indeed," Cal muttered, his brown eyes looking at Jack as if he were an insect that had to be smashed quickly.

 **The TWO SWEDES continue their sullen argument, in Swedish.**

 **OLAF (subtitled): You stupid fish head. I can't believe you bet our tickets.**

 **SVEN (subtitled): You lost our money. I'm just trying to get it back. Now shut up and take a card.**

 **JACK (jaunty): Hit me again, Sven.**

 **Jack takes the card and slips it into his hand.**

 **ECU JACK'S EYES. They betray nothing.**

 **CLOSE ON FABRIZIO licking his lips nervously as he refuses a card.**

 **ECU STACK in the middle of the table. Bills and coins from four countries.**

 **This has been going on for a while. Sitting on top of the money are two 3RD**

 **CLASS TICKETS for RMS TITANIC.**

 **The Titanic's whistle blows again. Final warning.**

 **JACK: The moment of truth boys. Somebody's life's about to change.**

 **Fabrizio puts his cards down. So do the Swedes. Jack holds his close.**

 **JACK: Let's see... Fabrizio's got niente. Olaf, you've got squat. Sven, uh oh... two pair... mmm. (turns to his friend) Sorry Fabrizio.**

 **FABRIZIO: What sorry? What you got? You lose my money? Ma va fa'n culo testa di cazzo-**

 **JACK: Sorry, you're not gonna see your mama again for a long time...**

 **He slaps a full house down on the table.**

 **JACK (grinning): 'Cause you're goin' to America! Full house boys!**

 **FABRIZIO: Porca Madonna! YEEAAAAA!**

 **The table explodes into shouting in several languages. Jack rakes in the money and the tickets.**

Mr. Andrews chuckled at seeing the two young men in such a state of joy and happiness. Ruth watched the display with a look of disapproval.

Cat shook her head; the woman seemed a long way from where they wanted her to be by the time the movie was finished. She just hoped, for Rose's sake, that Ruth would see her mistakes before it was too late.

 **JACK (to the Swedes): Sorry boys. Three of a kind and a pair. I'm high and you're dry and... (to Fabrizio) ... we're going to-**

 **FABRIZIO/JACK: L'AMERICA!**

 **Olaf balls up one huge farmer's fist. We think he's going to clobber Jack, but he swings round and punches Sven, who flops backward onto the floor and sits there, looking depressed. Olaf forgets about Jack and Fabrizio, who are dancing around, and goes into a rapid harangue of his stupid cousin.**

"I honestly thought he was going to punch me," Jack said with a smirk.

"You're not the only one, boy," Molly replied with a chuckle.

 **Jack kisses the tickets, then jumps on Fabrizio's back and rides him around the pub. It's like they won the lottery.**

 **JACK: Goin' home... to the land o' the free and the home of the real hot-dogs! On the TITANIC! We're ridin' in high style now! We're practically goddamned royalty, ragazzo mio!**

"Hardly," Cal remarked in an almost bored voice.

 **FABRIZIO: You see? Is my destinio! Like I told you. I go to l'America! To be a millionaire! (to pubkeeper) Capito? I go to America!**

 **PUBKEEPER: No, mate. Titanic goes to America. In five minutes.**

 **JACK: Shit! Come on, Fabri! (grabbing their stuff) Come on! (to all, grinning) It's been grand.**

 **They run for the door.**

 **PUBKEEPER: 'Course I'm sure if they knew it was you lot comin', they'd be pleased to wait!**

 **CUT TO:**

 **37 OMITTED**

 **38 EXT. TERMINAL - TITANIC**

 **Jack and Fabrizio, carrying everything they own in the world in the kit bags on their shoulders, sprint toward the pier. They tear through milling crowds next to the terminal. Shouts go up behind them as they jostle slow-moving gentlemen. They dodge piles of luggage, and weave through groups of people. They burst out onto the pier and Jack comes to a dead stop... staring at the cast wall of the ship's hull, towering seven stories above the wharf and over an eighth of a mile long. The Titanic is monstrous.**

 **Fabrizio runs back and grabs Jack, and they sprint toward the third-class gangway aft, at E deck. They reach the bottom of the ramp just as SIXTH OFFICER MOODY detaches it at the top. It starts to swing down from the gangway doors.**

 **JACK: Wait! We're passengers!**

 **Flushed and panting, he waves the tickets.**

 **MOODY: Have you been through the inspection queue?**

 **JACK (lying cheerfully): Of course! Anyway, we don't have lice, we're Americans. (glances at Fabrizio) Both of us.**

 **MOODY (testy): Right, come aboard.**

"I can't believe they let you board the ship," Ismay said, disgust filling his voice. "And at the last minute at that!"

"Moody was only doing his job," Matt replied. "Besides, they did have two tickets for the Titanic. What was he gonna do? Forbid them to come aboard?"

 **Moody has QUARTERMASTER ROWE reattach the gangway. Jack and Fabrizio come aboard. Moody glances at the tickets, then passes Jack and Fabrizio through to Rowe. Rowe looks at the names on the tickets to enter them in the passenger list.**

 **ROWE: Gundersen. And... (reading Fabrizio's) Gundersen.**

 **He hands the tickets back, eyeing Fabrizio's Mediterranean looks suspiciously.**

A few chuckles went around the room. Even too Sixth Officer Moody, it had been apparent Jack and Fabrizio were most likely not the gentlemen who'd bought the tickets.

Murdoch shook his head but the small smile playing at the First Officer's lips made it obvious that he couldn't be angry with his mate for letting these two board the Titanic.

 **JACK (grabbing Fabrizio's arm): Come on, Sven.**

 **Jack and Fabrizio whoop with victory as they run down the white-painted corridor... grinning from ear to ear.**

 **JACK: We are the luckiest sons of bitches in the world!**

Ruth pursed her lips at Jack's vulgar choice of words but remained silent. She really couldn't see what in the world it was that Rose found so appealing about the boy.

 **CUT TO:**

 **39 OMITTED**

 **40 EXT. TITANIC AND DOCK - DAY**

 **The mooring lines, as big around as a man's arm, are dropped into the water. A cheer goes up on the pier as SEVEN TUGS pull the Titanic away from the quay.**

 **CUT TO:**

 **41 EXT. AFT WELL DECK / POOP DECK - DAY**

 **JACK AND FABRIZIO burst through a door onto the aft well deck. TRACKING WITH THEM as they run across the deck and up the steel stairs to the poop deck. They get to the rail and Jack starts to yell and wave to the crowd on the dock.**

 **FABRIZIO: You know somebody?**

 **JACK: Of course not. That's not the point. (to the crowd) Goodbye! Goodbye! I'll miss you!**

 **Grinning, Fabrizio joins in, adding his voice to the swell of voices, feeling the exhilaration of the moment.**

 **FABRIZIO: Goodbye! I will never forget you!**

"Oh, boy," Sam said dreamily. "What a feeling this must've been… I would probably have done the same!"

 **CUT TO:**

 **42 OMITTED**

 **EXT. SOUTHAMPTON DOCK - DAY**

 **The crowd of cheering well-wishers waves heartily as a black wall of metal moves past them. Impossibly tiny figures wave back from the ship's rails. Titanic gathers speed.**

"They look so tiny next to the ship," Rosalie said.

"I love how well the animations are done," Matte replied. "I mean, they did rebuild a large part of the ship, but it all just looks so real…"

"How do these animations work, Mr. Riley?", Mr. Andrews asked curiously. "It certainly looks like this Mr. Cameron reconstructed the Titanic entirely."

Matt shook his head. "They rebuilt a large part of it and put it into a giant water tank right next to the ocean. Everything else was added digitally so it looks like they were actually shooting on a real ship."

"Pardon me," Mr. Ismay cut in. "What exactly does digitally mean?"

"Our advanced technology allows us to edit pictures or films after they were shot," Matt explained. "We use so-called computers to add animations, virtual effects to, in this case, transform a parking lot into the North Atlantic."

Mr. Ismay nodded, although Cat had the impression that the man hadn't understood a word Matt had said. Mr. Andrews, on the other hand, seemed to be processing this newly acquired information, a smile playing at his lips.

 **CUT TO:**

 **44 EXT. RIVER TEST - DAY**

 **IN A LONG LENS SHOT the prow of Titanic FILLS FRAME behind the lead tug, which is dwarfed. The bow wave spreads before the mighty plow of the liner's hull as it moves down the River Test toward the English Channel.**

 **CUT TO:**

 **45 INT. THIRD CLASS BERTHING / G-DECK FORWARD - DAY**

 **Jack and Fabrizio walk down a narrow corridor with doors lining both sides like a college dorm. Total confusion as people argue over luggage in several languages, or wander in confusion in the labyrinth. They pass emigrants studying the signs over the doors, and looking up the words in phrase books.**

Cat was reminded of her first ever vacations without her parents. She'd travelled to Spain with a friend and the little dictionary she'd been carrying around, had proved to be a lifesaver in some situations.

 **They find their berth. It is a modest cubicle, painted enamel white, with four bunks. Exposed pipes overhead. The other two guys are already there. OLAUS and BJORN GUNDERSEN.**

"The steerage accommodations seem very… simple to me," Ruth commented. "Not nearly as luxurious as the Millionaire Suits."

"Mother, please," Rose hissed lowly.

"I am merely pointing out the truth, Rose." Of course, the remark was aimed at Jack's inability to afford a first-class cabin.

 **Jack throws his kit on one open bunk, while Fabrizio takes the other.**

 **BJORN (in Swedish/ subtitled): Where is Sven?**

 **CUT TO:**

 **46 INT. SUITE B-52-56 - DAY**

 **By contrast, the so-called "Millionaire Suite" is in the Empire style, and comprises two bedrooms, a bath, WC, wardrobe room, and a large sitting room. In addition, there is a private 50 foot promenade deck outside.**

 **A room service waiter pours champagne into a tulip glass of orange juice and hands the Bucks Fizz to Rose. She is looking through her new paintings. There is a Monet of water lilies, a Degas of dancers, and a few abstract works. They are all unknown paintings... lost works.**

 **Cal is out on the covered deck, which has potted trees and vines on trellises, talking through the doorway to Rose in the sitting room.**

 **CAL: Those mud puddles were certainly a waste of money.**

 **ROSE (looking at a cubist portrait): You're wrong. They're fascinating. Like in a dream... there's truth without logic. What's his name again...? (reading off the canvas) Picasso.**

 **CAL (coming into the sitting room): He'll never amount to a thing, trust me. At least they were cheap.**

Sam grinned. "You know, Cal, some paintings of Picasso have been sold for several million dollars. I think one even went for almost 200 million, if I remember correctly."

"That's absurd," Cal said with a snort. "No one would pay such a horrendous sum for this garbage."

"You should tell that to the people who bought the paintings," Matt said, grinning.

 **A porter wheels Cal's private safe (which we recognize) into the room on a hand truck.**

 **CAL: Put that in the wardrobe.**

 **47 IN THE BEDROOM Rose enters with the large Degas of the dancers. She sets it on the dresser, near the canopy bed. Trudy is already in there, hanging up some of Rose's clothes.**

 **TRUDY: It smells so brand new. Like they built it all just for us. I mean... just to think that tonight, when I crawl between the sheets, I`ll be the first-**

 **Cal appears in the doorway of the bedroom.**

 **CAL (looking at Rose): And when I crawl between the sheets tonight, I'll still be the first.**

Ruth tensed upon hearing these words, though only merely so, and remained silent. Caledon Hockley's money would secure their future, she would not jeopardize the engagement by calling him out for his inappropriate remark. Marriage was not a matter of love, it was a convenience – especially so for women from the upper class. Rose would do well to realize what a fine match Caledon Hockley was, even more so given their current financial situation.

 **TRUDY (blushing at the innuendo): S'cuse me, Miss.**

 **She edges around Cal and makes a quick exit. Cal comes up behind Rose and**

 **puts his hands on her shoulders. An act of possession, not intimacy.**

 **CAL: The first and only. Forever.**

 **Rose's expression shows how bleak a prospect this is for her, now.**

 _Good gracious,_ Molly thought as she watched the scene.

She herself had been blessed with a loving husband and even after their separation they continued to treat each other with respect. Molly Brown had only met Rose DeWitt Bukater after boarding the Titanic and they were a long way from calling each other friends, but the girl needed an escape route out of this engagement.

 **CUT TO:**

 **48 EXT. CHERBOURG HARBOR, FRANCE - LATE DUSK**

 **Titanic stands silhouetted against a purple post-sunset sky. She is lit up like a floating palace, and her thousand portholes reflect in the calm harbor waters. The 150-foot tender Nomadic lies-to alongside, looking like a rowboat. The lights of a Cherbourg harbor complete the postcard image.**

 **CUT TO:**

 **49 INT. FIRST CLASS RECEPTION/ D-DECK**

 **Entering the first-class reception room from the tender are a number of prominent passengers. A BROAD-SHOULDERED WOMAN in an enormous feathered hat comes up the gangway, carrying a suitcase in each hand, a spindly porter running to catch up with her to take the bags.**

 **WOMAN: Well, I wasn't about to wait all day for you, sonny. Take 'em the rest of the way if you think you can manage.**

Rose had always preferred Molly's company to those of the other upper-class women. Maybe it was because she was less stuck-up, less snobbish. Or perhaps it was the fact that everything about Molly Brown was straight forward and honest. Rose didn't feel the same pressure of keeping up her façade when she was around the other woman, although their encounters were limited – mostly due to her mother's dislike of people who simply didn't fit into her picture of high society.

 **OLD ROSE (V.O.): At Cherbourg a woman came aboard named Margaret Brown, but we all called her Molly. History would call her the Unsinkable Molly Brown. Her husband had struck gold someplace out west, and she was what mother called "new money".**

"No hard feelings there, Ruthie," Molly laughed cheerfully despite the obvious insult. "Glad I got to live some before bein' introduced to the snake pit."

Ouch. That blow must've hurt. Cat could see Ruth's eyes darken but the woman did not reply. Maybe it was to maintain her composure as a first-class lady, Cat could only guess.

 **At 45, MOLLY BROWN is a tough talking straightshooter who dresses in the finery of her genteel peers but will never be one of them.**

 **OLD ROSE (V.O.): By the next afternoon we had made our final stop and we were steaming west from the coast of Ireland, with nothing out ahead of us but ocean...**

 **CUT TO:**

 **50 OMITTED**

 **51 EXT. BOW - DAY**

 **The ship glows with the warm creamy light of late afternoon. Jack and Fabrizio stand right at the bow gripping the curving railing so familiar from images of the wreck. Jack leans over, looking down fifty feet to where the prow cuts the surface like a knife, sending up two glassy sheets of water.**

 **CUT TO:**

 **52 INT. / EXT. TITANIC - SERIES OF SCENES - DAY**

 **ON THE BRIDGE, CAPTAIN SMITH turns from the binnacle to FIRST OFFICER WILLIAM MURDOCH.**

 **CAPTAIN SMITH: Take her to sea Mister Murdoch. Let's stretch her legs.**

 **Murdoch moves the engine telegraph lever to ALL AHEAD FULL.**

"Damn," Matt said in awe. "Must be a good feeling up on the bridge…"

Captain Smith smiled knowingly, remembering his first sail on a ship. "That it is, Mr. Riley."

 **53 NOW BEGINS a kind of musical/visual setpiece... an ode to the great ship. The music is rhythmic, surging forward, with a soaring melody that addresses the majesty and optimism of the ship of dreams.**

"God, I _love_ the music," Rosalie was raving about James Horner's movie soundtrack. "I just want to jump right into the scene myself!"

Sam and Cat giggled. Their friend had always been more on the romantic side.

 **IN THE ENGINE ROOM the telegraph clangs and moves to "All Ahead Full".**

 **CHIEF ENGINEER BELL: All ahead full!**

 **On the catwalk THOMAS ANDREWS, the shipbuilder, watches carefully as the engineers and greasers scramble to adjust valves. Towering above them are the twin RECIPROCATING engines, four stories tall, their ten-foot-long connecting rods surging up and down with the turning of the massive crankshafts. The engines thunder like the footfalls of marching giants.**

Wrinkling her nose with disgust, Ruth turned to look at the others. "I really don't understand how anyone could possibly find this kind of work appealing."

To their surprise, it was Murdoch who answered. "With all due respect, these honorable men are part of the ships crew, Ma'am. They work day and night to make sure you arrive at your planned destination safely and on time."

His voice was as tense as his body but his years as officer at the sea reminded him to remain polite when speaking to a lady of Ruth's rank.

"What Murdoch is trying to say," Sam cut in, her temper getting the better of her once again. "Is that these men work to give you snobbish and stuck-up bitches from first class a comfortable journey across the Atlantic. He's just too polite to put it that way."

"You are forgetting your place, Miss Riley," Ruth countered as coolly as an ice sculpture.

Sam just laughed at that.

"How so?", she asked in between laughers. "You're a nobody here, Mrs. DeWitt Bukater. Things have changed, ya know. Women have rights these days, they are allowed to have an opinion and are men's equals – shocking, I know…"

 **54 IN THE BOILER ROOMS the STOKERS chant a song as they hurl coal into the roaring furnaces. The "black gang" are covered with sweat and coal dust, their muscles working like part of the machinery as they toil in the hellish glow.**

 **55 UNDERWATER the enormous bronze screws chop through the water, hurling the steamer forward and churning up a vortex of foam that lingers for miles behind the juggernaut ship. Smoke pours from the funnels.**

 **56 The riven water flares higher at the bow as the ship's speeds builds. THE CAMERA SWEEPS UP the prow to find Jack, the wind streaming through his hair.**

 **57 Captain Smith steps out of the enclosed bridge onto the wing. He stands with his hands on the rail, looking every bit the storybook picture of a Captain... a great patriarch of the sea.**

 **FIRST OFFICER MURDOCH: Twenty-one knots, sir!**

 **SMITH: She's got a bone in her teeth now, eh, Mr. Murdoch.**

 **Smith accepts a cup of tea from FIFTH OFFICER LOWE. He contentedly watches the white V of water hurled outward from the bows like an expression of his own personal power. They are invulnerable, towering over the sea.**

Murdoch smiled fondly at the memory of his Fifth Officer complaining to him about having to serve tea to the captain.

 _"_ _I'm not a bloody steward!", Lowe had cursed under his breath. "If the captain wants his own personal maid, he should be lookin' in first class, not here!"_

 **58 AT THE BOW Jack and Fabrizio lean far over, looking down.**

 **In the glassy bow-wave two dolphins appear, under the water, running fast just in front of the steel blade of the prow. They do it for the sheer joy and exultation of motion. Jack watches the dolphins and grins. They breach, jumping clear of the water and then dive back, crisscrossing in front of the bow, dancing ahead of the juggernaut.**

"Oh, I have never seen dolphins this close!", Rose exclaimed excitedly, wishing that she could have been there with Jack and Fabrizio.

"We can go to the zoo, darling," Cal said. "There are plenty of animals you can look at. God knows where they pick up these things anyways…"

 **FABRIZIO looks forward across the Atlantic, staring into the sun sparkles.**

 **FABRIZIO: I can see the Statue of Liberty already. (grinning at Jack) Very small... of course.**

A few chuckles went around the room at that.

 **THE CAMERA ARCS around them, until they are framed against the sea.**

 **NOW WE PULL BACK, across the forecastle deck. Rising, as we continue back, and the ships rolls endlessly forward underneath. Over the bridge wing, along the boat deck until her funnels come INTO FRAME besides us and march past like the pillars of heaven, one by one. We pull back and up, until we are looking down the funnels, and the people strolling on the decks and standing at the rail become antlike.**

 **And still we pull back until the great lady is seen whole in a gorgeous aerial portrait, black and severe in her majesty.**

"Breathtaking," Rose whispered. "Like a bird's view at the world below…"

 **ISMAY (V.O.): She is the largest moving object ever made by the hand of man in all history...**

The atmosphere abruptly changed – not only in the movie but also in Rosalie's living room. Everyone but Jack, Captain Smith and Mr. Murdoch had been present at the Palm Court Restaurant and none of them had fond memories of the meeting.

 **CUT TO:**

 **59 INT. PALM COURT RESTAURANT - DAY**

 **CLOSE ON J. BRUCE ISMAY, Managing Director of White Star Line.**

 **ISMAY: ...and our master shipbuilder, Mr. Andrews here, designed her from the keel plates up.**

 **He indicates a handsome 39-year old Irish gentleman to his right, THOMAS ANDREWS, of Harland and Wolf Shipbuilders.**

Mr. Andrews shifted uncomfortably in his seat. Cat suspected that the man, although in high regard given his recent works, did not enjoy being at the center of attention. She couldn't blame him though, not in this sort of company.

 **WIDER, showing the group assembled for lunch the next day. Ismay seated with Cal, Rose, Ruth, Molly Brown and Thomas Andrews in the Palm Court, a beautiful sunny spot enclosed by high arched windows.**

 **ANDREWS (disliking the attention): Well, I may have knocked her together, but the idea was Mr. Ismay's. He envisioned a steamer so grand in scale, and so luxurious in its appointments, that its supremacy would never be challenged. And here she is... (he slaps the table) ...willed into solid reality.**

 **MOLLY: Why're ships always bein' called "she"? Is it because men think half the women around have big sterns and should be weighed in tonnage? (they all laugh) Just another example of the men settin' the rules their way.**

 **The waiter arrives to take orders. Rose lights a cigarette.**

 **RUTH: You know I don't like that, Rose.**

 **CAL: She knows.**

 **Cal takes the cigarette from her and stubs it out.**

 **CAL (to the waiter): We'll both have the lamb. Rare, with a little mint sauce. (to Rose, after the waiter moves away) You like lamb, don't you sweetpea?**

"I'm sure Rose is capable of ordering her own food, Mr. Hockley," Cat said with her eyes resting on Cal's leaned-back figure.

"Let my fiancée's ordering habits be my problem, Miss Graham," he replied with a tense smile. "I do believe I know what's best for her."

"Do you?", Cat asked skeptically. "Cause from the looks of it, you've got it all wrong."

"As I said," Cal's voice had a dangerous tone to it. "You should leave such worries to me."

Cat shook her head. It would not be easy to get Rose out of this hell of an engagement, but it was worth a try.

 **Molly is watching the dynamic between Rose, Cal and Ruth.**

 **MOLLY: So, you gonna cut her meat for her too there, Cal? (turning to Ismay) Hey, who came up with the name Titanic? You, Bruce?**

 **ISMAY: Yes, actually. I wanted to convey sheer size. And size means stability, luxury... and safety-**

 **ROSE: Do you know of Dr. Freud? His ideas about the male preoccupation with size might be of particular interest to you, Mr. Ismay.**

 **Andrews chokes on his breadstick, suppressing laughter.**

Rose was taken aback when Cat patted her on her shoulder and said: "Well done, Rose. Couldn't've said it better myself!"

Her mother's expression, however, mirrored her screen-self's following words perfectly:

 **RUTH: My God, Rose, what's gotten into-**

 **ROSE: Excuse me.**

 **She stalks away.**

 **RUTH (mortified): I do apologize.**

 **MOLLY: She's a pistol, Cal. You sure you can handle her?**

 **CAL (tense but feigning unconcern): Well, I may have to start minding what she reads from now on.**

"You should be thankful to have a fiancée like her," Sam countered angrily. "She's everything you could hope for – and what do you do? You smash what little fire she has left within her! She walks through life like a zombie while you show her around like a prized possession! She's a human being, Caledon Hockley, not a porcelain doll." Then she turned toward Ruth, not caring in the slightest if she had offended Cal. "And you are even worse! You are her _mother_ for god's sake! You should love and cherish her, not force her into an engagement she wants no part of! Instead of wanting her to be happy, all you care about is money and your beloved reputation among upper-class society. Wake up, woman, because you're about to lose the only person in your life who you can call family!"

Silence followed Sam's rant as she was still fuming at Ruth who looked as shocked and taken aback by this outburst as the rest of them.

"Now, excuse me," Sam added, her dark eyes sparkling with anger. "I need some fresh air. I'll be back soon."

* * *

 **As I said, very emotional - for me, at least. ;) Another thing I wanted to ask is if you think that the length of the chapters are okay the way they are now or if you want them shorter/longer? I try to let my chapters end whenever I fell like we are entering a new section in the movie. Let me know what you guys think!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey!**

 **I'm back, finally! I haven't slept much in the past few days because this is my last week of exams until June and I still have other work to do as well, so yeah... Sorry for keeping you guys waiting.**

 **\- milagro yuval: This chapter is about the size of the last two because of the little time I found to write between my job and university. I intend to make them a little bit longer in the future but it depends on how much my teachers are asking from me. I just realized that I've got way more to do this semester than in the past two.**

 **\- Number Ten: Yes, I realized that, too. I'm not sure how much I'll add to the script - or if I'll add anything at all. I'm bad at re-telling scenes that have already been shown in a movie or written in a book. Worse, I don't remember them when I get to the point where the'd fit in.**

 **\- ChillPillBerry: I will, don't worry! ;)**

 **\- determindtobloom: Thanks a lot! I'm trying really hard here to make this work out!**

 **\- rose2e: Your wish is my command. ;) Here you go!**

 **\- Lady's Secret: Thanks! I love your name by the way. Where did you come up with it? :)**

 **\- Kepler11c: Thanks a lot! Though I'm pretty sure that you'll find some typos if you look hard enough. lol**

 **\- nessietrash: Yes! I love her, too! She says what she thinks - which is mostly what I'm thinking while writing these scenes. ;) And someone has to tell Ruth and the lot that they're a bunch of idiots who really need to open their eyes... ;)**

 **Anyway, I hope you guys get to enjoy chapter five! It was harder to write than I thought given the seriousness of the scene but I hope I managed okay here.**

* * *

"Perhaps we should take a break," Rosalie suggested while the rest of them still stared after Sam who'd left the living room after her surprise outbreak.

They'd paused the movie, unsure whether their friend would return soon.

"Nonsense," Mr. Ismay snapped. "This girl has the audacity to insult one of the most respectable persons onboard my ship! I see absolutely no reason to adjourn our return merely because Miss Riley is unable to control her temper."

Matt glared at him. Cat, sensing danger, quickly intervened before things got out of hand.

"It's okay, Rosalie," she reassured her friend with a smile. "You know Sam, she'll be back in a minute. Besides, she already knows the movie by heart, she won't miss anything if we continue with this here."

"Still." Rosalie, always worrying about her friends, bit her lip. "I think maybe someone should check on her…"

Matt sighed. "I'll do it," he muttered. "I could use some fresh air as well…"

He shot an annoyed glare at Ismay and stood up to follow his sister out of the room, leaving Rosalie and Cat alone with their guests.

Their little experiment was certainly going to be an interesting one if things continued that way.

"Okay… shall we?", Cat asked and pressed _Play_ to continue with the movie.

 **60 EXT. POOP DECK / AFTER DECKS - DAY**

 **Jack sits on a bench in the sun. Titanic's wake spreads out behind him to the horizon. He has his knees pulled up, supporting a leather bound sketching pad, his only valuable possession. With conte crayon he draws rapidly, using sure strokes. An emigrant from Manchester named CARTMELL has his 3-year old daughter CORA standing on the lower rung of the rail. She is leaned back against his beer barrel of a stomach, watching the seagulls.**

 **THE SKETCH captures them perfectly, with a great sense of the humanity of the moment. Jack is good. Really good. Fabrizio looks over Jack's shoulder. He nods appreciatively.**

"Where did you learn to draw like that?", Cat asked him, fascinated at how precise he managed to capture the moment.

A light smile tugged at his lips. "Paris," Jack answered. "I lived with an old street artist for a while. The man thought I had enough talent to take me on as an apprentice." He shrugged. "And here I am…"

While Cat had to chuckle at imagining a young Jack Dawson getting drawing lessons from an old guy, Ruth eyed him coldly. Hadn't Sam's little speech achieved anything?

 **TOMMY RYAN, a scowling young Irish emigrant, watches as a crewmember comes by, walking three small dogs around the deck. One of them, a BLACK FRENCH BULLDOG, is among the ugliest creatures on the planet.**

 **TOMMY: That's typical. First class dogs come down here to take a shit.**

 **Jack looks up from his sketch.**

 **JACK: That's so we know where we rank in the scheme of things.**

 **TOMMY: Like we could forget.**

 **Jack glances across the well deck. At the aft railing of B deck promenade stands ROSE, in a long yellow dress and white gloves.**

Rose stared at the screen. She'd never seen herself like that – bathed in golden sunlight which made her appear somehow regal and beautiful… as if she were from a different world altogether.

She caught a glimpse of Jack who seemed to be as fascinated by the scene as she herself.

 **CLOSE ON JACK, unable to take his eyes off of her. They are across from each other, about 60 feet apart, with the well deck like a valley between them. She on her promontory, he on his much lower one. She stares down at the water.**

 **He watches her unpin her elaborate hat and take it off. She looks at the frilly absurd thing, then tosses it over the rail. It sails far down to the water and is carried away, astern. A spot of yellow in the vast ocean. He is riveted by her. She looks like a figure in a romantic novel, sad and isolated.**

"Rose!", her mother exclaimed shocked.

"I'm afraid I was never too fond of the hat, mother," Rose replied in a surprisingly mocking tone. "Besides, it's not like I don't own a hundred other ones."

Chuckling, Cat caught Mr. Andrews' eyes who clearly found Rose's – if rare – temperamental outbursts as amusing as half of the other people in this room.

On the other hand, however, it seemed that it took Ruth all her strength to not lose her temper over her daughter's inappropriate behavior.

"You really should calm down, Mrs. DeWitt Bukater," Cat said. "I wholeheartedly agree with Rose – it was a ghastly piece of fashion."

She flashed Rose a smile which the other girl returned, thankful for having Cat's support.

 **Fabrizio taps Tommy and they both look at Jack gazing at Rose. Fabrizio and Tommy grin at each other.**

 **Rose turns suddenly and looks right at Jack. He is caught staring, but he doesn't look away. She does, but then looks back. Their eyes meet across the space of the well deck, across the gulf between worlds.**

Ruth followed the scene with what appeared to be cool interest. On the inside, however, a sickening feeling began to stir in her stomach as she realized the intensity of the moment. Was a simple contact of the eyes all it had taken her daughter to foolishly risk her engagement to Caledon Hockley, their security for a future without worries?

She glanced over at Rose, a slight blush covering her daughter's cheeks, and wondered not for the first time how much of Dawson's heroic rescue story was the actual truth.

 **Jack sees a man (Cal) come up behind her and take her arm. She jerks her arm away. They argue in pantomime. She storms away, and he goes after her, disappearing along the A-deck promenade. Jack stares after her.**

 **TOMMY: Forget it, boyo. You'd as like have angels fly out o' yer arse as get next to the likes o' her.**

"Perhaps, Mr. Dawson," Cal said lowly. "You should heed your… _friend's_ advice."

 **CUT TO:**

 **61 INT. FIRST CLASS DINING SALOON - NIGHT**

 **SLOWLY PUSHING IN ON ROSE as she sits, flanked by people in heated conversation. Cal and Ruth are laughing together, while on the other side LADY DUFF-GORDON is holding forth animatedly. We don't hear what they are saying. Rose is staring at her plate, barely listening to the inconsequential babble around her.**

 **OLD ROSE (V.O.): I saw my whole life as if I'd already lived it... an endless parade of parties and cotillions, yachts and polo matches... always the same narrow people, the same mindless chatter. I felt like I was standing at a great precipice, with no one to pull me back, no one who cared... or even noticed.**

The words stirred something inside Rose, a whirlwind of buried emotions that were threatening to break through the surface once more. In her lap, she had a tight grip of her right wrist, her finger nails digging mercilessly into her skin. Would her mother finally see what she was putting her through? That her world was collapsing around her, that the endless emptiness in her life was threatening to swallow her? Would Ruth finally be able to see that Jack was the anchor keeping her from drowning?

Molly watched the dinner scene with interest.

"A blind man can see that there's somethin' wrong with the girl, Ruth," she said almost accusingly.

"She was being melodramatic, Mrs. Brown," Ruth replied coolly and with a precis emphasis on Molly's last name. "Furthermore, I do not see why you should concern yourself with my daughter's wellbeing any longer."

The indication was as clear as daylight, yet Molly decided that it was time someone stood up for the girl and give her a voice where she had none.

 **ANGLE BENEATH TABLE showing Rose's hand, holding a tiny fork from her crab salad. She pokes the crab-fork into the skin of her arm, harder and harder until it draws blood.**

Molly shook her head and pointed towards the screen.

"Do you still call that melodramatic?", she asked. "For god's sake, Ruth, the girl's a mess. I don't understand what's wrong with you! This is _your daughter_ we're talkin' about!"

Ruth's nostrils were flaring and she could barely hold her tongue when she finally replied: "As you've correctly stated, _Mrs. Brown,_ Rose is _my_ daughter. Her wellbeing, therefore, lies in my hands. Caledon Hockley is a fine young man," with an admirable inheritance that will secure our future, she added in her thoughts, "whose intentions have been nothing but honorable. If only she would see-"

"Oh, I do, mother," Rose interrupted for the first time. "Believe me, I do. It's you who refuses to see the truth. I have been trying to make you understand how I feel about this engagement but you would never listen."

Ruth, having gotten paler with each sentence, stared at Rose.

"Do you want me to work as a seamstress?", she asked shakily. "Is that what you want? That I sell our precious possessions, our memories so they are scattered all over the place?"

Cat could see that Rose was trying hard to hold back another retort. Ruth was her mother, after all, and even though the woman had forced her into an engagement with a man she didn't love, she was the only constant in Rose's life.

 _Stop trying to please her,_ Cat thought as their eyes met. _She'll never cease to dictate your life if you go on like this._

She didn't say the words out loud. Rose would have to learn to step up for herself, grow some backbone.

"Life isn't fair, mother," Rose finally replied. "We are women, remember? Our choices are never easy."

 **CUT TO:**

 **62 INT. CORRIDOR / B DECK - NIGHT**

 **Rose walks along the corridor. A steward coming the other way greets her, and she nods with a slight smile. She is perfectly composed.**

 **CUT TO:**

 **63 INT. ROSE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT**

 **She enters the room. Stands in the middle, staring at her reflection in the large vanity mirror. Just stands there, then-**

 **With a primal, anguished cry she claws at her throat, ripping off her pearl necklace, which explodes across the room. In a frenzy she tears at herself, her clothes, her hair... then attacks the room. She flings everything off the dresser and it flies clattering against the wall. She hurls a hand mirror against the vanity, cracking it.**

The entire room was silent, shocked at Rose's outburst.

Cal watched the scene with disgust. "Will I have to expect more of these… violent reactions to dining with your future husband, sweetpea?", he asked with a tense smile.

Rose remained silent, only her eyes betrayed the storm of emotions raging on inside of her.

"We may have to do something about that, don't you agree, darling?" The questions sounded so innocent that Rosalie had the urge to throw up. "Anger doesn't suit you, darling."

 **CUT TO:**

 **64 EXT. A DECK PROMENADE, AFT - NIGHT**

 **Rose runs along the B deck promenade. She is disheveled, her hair flying. She is crying, her cheeks streaked with tears. But also angry, furious! Shaking with emotions she doesn't understand... hatred, self-hatred, desperation. A strolling couple watch her pass. Shocked at the emotional display in public.**

Mr. Andrews felt a pang of sympathy for the young girl. It was obvious that she was in distress, yet not a single one of the passengers she passed along the way offered help.

 **CUT TO:**

 **65 EXT. POOP DECK - NIGHT**

 **Jack is kicked back on one of the benches gazing at the stars blazing gloriously overhead. Thinking artist thoughts and smoking a cigarette.**

 **Hearing something, he turns as Rose runs up the stairs from the well deck. They are the only two on the stern deck, except for QUARTERMASTER ROWE, twenty feet above them on the docking bridge catwalk. She doesn't see Jack in the shadows, and runs right past him.**

 **TRACKING WITH ROSE as she runs across the deserted fantail. Her breath hitches in an occasional sob, which she suppresses. Rose slams against the base of the stern flagpole and clings there, panting. She stares out at the black water.**

 **Then starts to climb over the railing. She has to hitch her long dress way up, and climbing is clumsy. Moving methodically, she turns her body and gets her heels on the white-painted gunwale, her back to the railing, facing out toward blackness. 60 feet below her, the massive propellers are churning the Atlantic into white foam, and a ghostly wake trails off toward the horizon.**

"Rose!", Ruth cried out. "Has all common sense finally left you? You could have fallen to your death!"

Slowly, Rose turned to face her mother with a blank expression. "Perhaps, mother, that's exactly what I had in mind when I climbed over the railing."

"How could you-," Ruth breathed in disbelief, shaking her head.

"Maybe, know you'll now know the real reason Jack Dawson was invited to dine with us," Rose added bitterly. "Certainly, not because of my _clumsiness_."

 **IN A LOW ANGLE, we see Rose standing like a figurehead in reverse. Below her are the huge letters of the name "TITANIC".**

 **She leans out, her arms straightening... looking down hypnotized, into the vortex below her. Her dress and hair are lifted by the wind of the ship's movement. The only sound, above the rush of water below, is the flutter and snap of the big Union Jack right above her.**

 **JACK: Don't do it.**

 **She whips her head around at the sound of his voice. It takes a second for her eyes to focus.**

 **ROSE: Stay back! Don't come any closer!**

 **Jack sees the tear tracks on her cheeks in the faint glow from the stern running lights.**

 **JACK: Take my hand. I'll pull you back in.**

 **ROSE: No! Stay where you are. I mean it. I'll let go.**

 **JACK: No, you won't.**

 **ROSE: What do you mean no I won't? Don't presume to tell me what I will and will not do. You don't know me.**

 **JACK: You would have done it already. Now come on, take my hand.**

 **Rose is confused now. She can't see him very well through the tears, so she wipes them with one hand, almost losing her balance.**

 **ROSE: You're distracting me. Go away.**

 **JACK: I can't. I'm involved now. If you let go I have to jump in after you.**

"How very noble of you, Mr. Dawson," Cal said coolly.

 **ROSE: Don't be absurd. You'll be killed.**

 **He takes off his jacket.**

 **JACK: I'm a good swimmer.**

 **He starts unlacing his left shoe.**

 **ROSE: The fall alone would kill you.**

 **JACK: It would hurt. I'm not saying it wouldn't. To be honest I'm a lot more concerned about the water being so cold.**

 **She looks down. The reality factor of what she is doing is sinking in.**

Curiously, Cat glanced over at Ruth. She was tense, her blue eyes following the scene intensely without even blinking once. Was the full meaning of the situation finally sinking in? Or was it merely a show of disapproval of the fact that her only child had tried to throw herself off the stern of a giant ocean liner?

 **ROSE: How cold?**

 **JACK (taking off his left shoe): Freezing. Maybe a couple degrees over.**

 **He starts unlacing his right shoe.**

 **JACK: Ever been to Wisconsin?**

 **ROSE (perplexed): No.**

"This is not the time for small talk, Mr. Dawson," Ismay snapped, his ever-annoying self obviously fully recovered from the outbursts of the past fifteen minutes. "The boy should have called for help immediately! This is a very delicate situation!"

"With all due respect, Mr. Ismay," Jack replied in his most gentleman-like voice. "Had I raised alarm, she most likely would have panicked and fallen – intentionally or not."

How Jack managed to remain so calm in front of these people was a mystery to Cat. He'd gotten nothing but insults or snappy comments, yet his composure was still intact.

 **JACK: Well they have some of the coldest winters around, and I grew up there, near Chippewa Falls. Once when I was a kid me and my father were ice-fishing out on Lake Wissota... ice-fishing's where you chop a hole in the-**

 **ROSE: I know what ice fishing is!**

Despite the tense situation, a chuckle went around the room as Rose's temper flared up.

 **JACK: Sorry. Just... you look like kind of an indoor girl. Anyway, I went through some thin ice and I'm tellin' ya, water that cold... like that right down there... it hits you like a thousand knives all over your body. You can't breathe, you can't think... least not about anything but the pain.**

 **(takes off his other shoe)**

 **Which is why I'm not looking forward to jumping in after you. But like I said, I don't see a choice. I guess I'm kinda hoping you'll come back over the rail and get me off the hook here.**

 **ROSE: You're crazy.**

 **JACK: That's what everybody says. But with all due respect, I'm not the one hanging off the back of a ship.**

 **He slides one step closer, like moving up on a spooked horse.**

 **JACK: Come on. You don't want to do this. Give me your hand.**

 **Rose stares at this madman for a long time. She looks at his eyes and they somehow suddenly seem to fill her universe.**

The sickening feeling regained its hold of her as Ruth watched the events like a statue. Caledon Hockley might not have noticed, but Ruth DeWitt Bukater was a mother and she, too, had once been young and foolish. Reality had opened her eyes, had brutally shown her that life was not kind to the female gender. She had tried to shield Rose from the harshness the world had to offer but her daughter's relationship to the steerage boy threatened to destroy their very existence. If the ship was really going to sink as Catherine Graham predicted it would, there was still hope the Jack Dawson would perish in the disaster. As cold and unforgiving as it sounded, even to her own ears, Ruth would no longer have to worry about a life in poverty.

 **ROSE: Alright.**

 **She unfastens one hand from the rail and reaches it around toward him. He reaches out to take it, firmly.**

 **JACK: I'm Jack Dawson.**

 **ROSE (voice quavering): Pleased to meet you, Mr. Dawson.**

 **Rose starts to turn. Now that she has decided to live, the height is terrifying. She is overcome by vertigo as she shifts her footing, turning to face the ship. As she starts to climb, her dress gets in the way, and one foot slips off the edge of the deck.**

 **She plunges, letting out a piercing SHRIEK. Jack, gripping her hand, is jerked toward the rail. Rose barely grabs a lower rail with her free hand.**

 **QUARTERMASTER ROWE, up on the docking bridge hears the scream and heads for the ladder.**

 **ROSE: HELP! HELP!**

 **JACK: I've got you. I won't let go.**

 _You jump, I jump, remember?_ Jack thought when his eyes met Rose's. He'd only just found her, he had no intentions of losing her – ever.

He didn't believe for one second that Ruth was trying to make her daughter's life miserable by keeping them apart. He'd lived on the streets for several years now, he knew about the hardships on the road, but he'd give anything to support the girl with the mouthful-of-a-name so she wouldn't have to go through the same ordeal.

Rose was a free spirit, quick-minded, intelligent – not at all the porcelain doll Cal was showing off to his rich friends. He'd ask her to come with him in New York but unlike her fiancé, Jack would always accept her answer – even if she refused him.

 **Jack holds her hand with all his strength, bracing himself on the railing with his other hand. Rose tries to get some kind of foothold on the smooth hull. Jack tries to lift her bodily over the railing. She can't get any footing in her dress and evening shoes, and she slips back. Rose SCREAMS again.**

It took all the self-control Ruth had to keep up her stoic façade. She knew that Rose had made it, it was absolutely silly to even consider thinking otherwise. Yet, her heart was beating ridiculously fast in her chest at seeing her only daughter so very close to the brink of death and she silently chastised herself for inwardly begging the boy to not let go.

If he had, Ruth would have made sure that Jack Dawson would never see the light of day again.

 **Jack, awkwardly clutching Rose by whatever he can get a grip on as she flails, gets her over the railing. They fall together onto the deck in a tangled heap, spinning in such a way that Jack winds up slightly on top of her.**

 **Rowe slides down the ladder from the docking bridge like it's a fire drill and sprints across the fantail.**

 **ROWE: Here, what's all this?!**

 **Rowe runs up and pulls Jack off of Rose, revealing her disheveled and sobbing on the deck. Her dress is torn, and the hem is pushing up above her knees, showing one ripped stocking. He looks at Jack, the shaggy steerage man with his jacket off, and the first class lady clearly in distress, and starts drawing conclusions. Two seamen chug across the deck to join them.**

 **ROWE (to Jack): Here you, stand back! Don't move an inch! (to the seamen) Fetch the Master at Arms.**

The door of the living room opened, revealing a much calmer-looking Sam followed by her brother.

"Where are we?", she asked as she reclaimed her seat next to Cal who seemed anything but happy to have her back at his side.

"Rose just tried to throw herself off the stern," Cat answered bluntly and her friend nodded.

"Good," Sam said coolly. "At least, this'll get some of us thinking about their values in life."

She looked directly at Ruth who met her stare with an equal intensity, refusing to lower her gaze.

 **CUT TO:**

 **66 EXT. POOP DECK - NIGHT**

 **A few minutes later. Jack is being detained by the burly MASTER AT ARMS, the closest thing to a cop on board. He is handcuffing Jack. Cal is right in front of Jack, and furious. He has obviously just rushed out here with Lovejoy and another man, and none of them have coats over their black-tie evening dress. The other man is COLONEL ARCHIBALD GRACIE, a mustachioed blowhard who still has his brandy snifter. He offers it to Rose, who is hunched over crying on a bench nearby, but she waves it away. Cal is more concerned with Jack. He grabs him by the lapels.**

 **CAL: What made you think you could put your hands on my fiancée?! Look at me, you filth! What did you think you were doing?!**

 **ROSE: Cal, stop! It was an accident.**

 **CAL: An accident?!**

 _An accident?_ Mr. Ismay snorted. First, the girl chooses to end her life, then decides otherwise and finally calls it an accident!

 **ROSE: It was... stupid really. I was leaning over and I slipped.**

 **Rose looks at Jack, getting eye contact.**

 **ROSE: I was leaning way over, to see the... ah... propellers. And I slipped and I would have gone overboard... and Mr. Dawson here saved me and he almost went over himself.**

"Lying doesn't suit you, sweetpea," Cal said sweetly.

 **CAL: You wanted to see the propellers?**

 **GRACIE (shaking his head): Women and machinery do not mix.**

Sam rolled her eyes. Not only because Gracie was making use of a cliché, but also because the man clearly didn't seem to be the brightest star on the sky.

Ruth, on the other hand, found the colonel's obliviousness to the situation a blessing from above. God knew which kinds of rumors would have made the round, dealing all sorts of blows to their reputation that she would have had to remediate with delicate precision.

 **MASTER AT ARMS (to Jack): Was that the way of it?**

 **Rose is begging him with her eyes not to say what really happened.**

 **JACK: Uh huh. That was pretty much it.**

 **He looks at Rose a moment longer. Now they have a secret together.**

 **COLONEL GRACIE: Well! The boy's a hero then. Good for you son, well done! (to Cal) So it's all's well and back to our brandy, eh?**

 **Jack is uncuffed. Cal gets Rose to her feet and moving.**

 **CAL (rubbing her arms): Let's get you in. You're freezing.**

 **Cal is leaving without a second thought for Jack.**

 **GRACIE (low): Ah... perhaps a little something for the boy?**

"At least one of ya's got some manners," Molly said.

"I believe we shall see exactly who is and is not well-mannered, shan't we, sweetpea?", Cal countered, his brown eyes resting on his fiancée who refused to look at him.

Rose knew exactly what he was playing at.

"After all, I believe I am the wounded party here," he continued. "But why don't we find out together just how low you've sunk…"

The farther the movie progressed, the darker Cal's mood got. He could already feel the anger heating up inside as he watched the gutter rat taking away what was rightfully his.

 **CAL: Oh, right. Mr. Lovejoy. A twenty should do it.**

"This man just saved your fiancée's life, Mr. Hockley," Captain Smith said calmly but disapprovingly. "Steerage passenger or not, Mr. Dawson deserves more recognition than that."

 **ROSE: Is that the going rate for saving the woman you love?**

 **CAL: Rose is displeased. Mmm... what to do?**

"You know," Cal said with a frown. "I'm beginning to wonder why I even cared…"

 **Cal turns back to Jack. He appraises him condescendingly... a steerage ruffian, unwashed and ill-mannered.**

 **CAL: I know. (to Jack) Perhaps you could join us for dinner tomorrow, to regale our group with your heroic tale?**

What looked like an offer of genuine gratitude was clearly another way of shunning Jack in front of the other first-class passengers.

 **JACK (looking straight at Rose): Sure. Count me in.**

Jack looked over to Molly and both shared a knowing grin. She'd helped him out a great deal when she'd lent him her son's tuxedo. He didn't know what he would have done without her and her support even throughout the dinner.

 **CAL: Good. Settled then.**

 **Cal turns to go, putting a protective arm around Rose. he leans close to Gracie as they walk away.**

 **CAL: This should be amusing.**

"I hope I didn't disappoint you too much that evening, Cal," Jack said lightly.

Cal looked at him with one of his fake smiles. "Clearly, you haven't. Although I am still at a loss as to where you found that expensive suit you were wearing that evening."

Jack returned his smile with a mysterious smirk but kept the secret to himself.

"That, Mr. Hockley," he replied smugly. "Is for me to know and you to find out."

The others chuckled at this lighthearted exchange between the two men, even though it was quite clear that Hockley didn't share Jack's amusement.

 **JACK (as Lovejoy passes): Can I bum a cigarette?**

Ruth pursed her lips at the informality of his language. The boy wasn't dense even if one could come to a very different conclusion upon hearing these words. In fact, Ruth believed him to be intelligent enough to know what he'd been dealing with when he'd so elegantly blinded all the other upper-class guests with his charms during said dinner. He'd not been able to fool her, however. Ruth had spent almost four decades learning the fine arts of playing the game of the rich and powerful; she could tell a threat when she saw one. By no means did she approve of everything Caledon Hockley did, but the man was their ticket into a secure future and Jack Dawson had nothing to offer that would change her mind.

 **Lovejoy smoothly draws a silver cigarette case from his jacket and snaps it open. Jack takes a cigarette, then another, popping it behind his ear for later. Lovejoy lights Jack's cigarette.**

 **LOVEJOY: You'll want to tie those.**

 **(Jack looks at his shoes)**

 **Interesting that the young lady slipped so mighty all of a sudden and you still had time to take off your jacket and shoes. Mmmm?**

 **Lovejoy's expression is bland, but the eyes are cold. He turns away to join his group.**

There wasn't much said after watching the scene, much to Rose's relief. Her mother was as stoic as ever, her eyes observant and cool and Rose wondered if Ruth had actually felt something upon seeing her own daughter nearly falling off the stern. Of course, the head of the DeWitt Bukater household wore an expression that betrayed nothing of the sort. All Rose could do was guess and hope that at least a small part of her mother's heart felt a little bit of sympathy for her.

* * *

 **The next update won't be before Friday as I am busy with work and university. Just to let you all know. ;)**

 **Also, Ruth is a hard one to write. She is a mother who only wants the best for her daughter (even though sometimes I'm not sure if she's not looking to get an advantage out of this herself) given the circumstances of society's rules back then and she detests Jack for his social rank. On the other hand, I have to make her realize that Jack may be a better option for Rose than Cal. Let's see if I can manage to change the old hag to the better. ;)**


End file.
